---
title: If his heart were heavy when he took count of this, 'twas small marv… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: If his heart were heavy when he took count of this, 'twas small marvel! Who acts: heart, twas. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 8, sentence 20

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If his heart were heavy when he took count of this, 'twas small marvel!

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**Who acts:** heart, twas · **What happens:** be, take, marvel · **To what, where:** count

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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 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (heart, twas), 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:pg8447:8:20
# text = If his heart were heavy when he took count of this, 'twas small marvel!
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
9	count	count	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	twas	twa	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
15	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	marvel	marvel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | speed's heart |  |  |  |  | heavy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | past | heart | count of this and small marvel |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent count=Theme |
| 3 | **marvel** |  | twas |  |  |  |  |  | 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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