---
title: Rather would I, ere even, be flayed with a sharp knife than refrain… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: Rather would I, ere even, be flayed with a sharp knife than refrain from this. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 9, 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 9, sentence 3

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Rather would I, ere even, be flayed with a sharp knife than refrain from this.

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**What happens:** flay · **To what, where:** this

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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 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg8447:9:3
# text = Rather would I, ere even, be flayed with a sharp knife than refrain from this.
1	Rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	ere	ere	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	even	even	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	flayed	flay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	than	than	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	refrain	refrain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flay** | would · passive |  |  |  | this |  | with a sharp knife than refrain | 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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