---
title: Do what he might with that sword it suffered neither dint nor scar;… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: Do what he might with that sword it suffered neither dint nor scar; he smote straight to the mid-ward; nor was their harness so good that it might withstand him. Who acts: sword, beset. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 7, sentence 49

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Do what he might with that sword it suffered neither dint nor scar; he smote straight to the mid-ward; nor was their harness so good that it might withstand him.

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**Who acts:** sword, beset · **What happens:** do, suffer, smite, be, withstand · **To what, where:** dint, mid-ward, harness, beset

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This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sword, beset), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg8447:7:49
# text = Do what he might with that sword it suffered neither dint nor scar; he smote straight to the mid-ward; nor was their harness so good that it might withstand him.
1	Do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	1	obj	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	suffered	suffer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	neither	neither	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
11	dint	dint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	13	cc	_	_
13	scar	scar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	smote	smite	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
17	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	mid-ward	mid-ward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	25	cc	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	harness	harness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	withstand	withstand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	csubj	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present |  |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 2 | **suffer** | past | sword | neither dint nor scar |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dint=Stimulus |
| 3 | **smite** | past | beset | the mid-ward |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus mid-ward=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** | past |  | dint's harness |  |  |  | dint *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 5 | **withstand** | might | sword | beset |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Project Gutenberg book 8447 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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