---
title: He saw that better might not be: he might neither leap out of the bo… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: He saw that better might not be: he might neither leap out of the boat nor otherwise escape. Who acts: Tis. 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 81

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He saw that better might not be: he might neither leap out of the boat nor otherwise escape.

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**Who acts:** Tis · **What happens:** see, be, leap out, escape · **To what, where:** boat

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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: who acts (Tis), 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:pg8447:9:81
# text = He saw that better might not be: he might neither leap out of the boat nor otherwise escape.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
4	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	xcomp	_	_
5	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	leap	leap	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
13	out	out	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	19	cc	_	_
18	otherwise	otherwise	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	escape	escape	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | Tis |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | infinitive | Tis *not said here* |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **leap out** | might | Tis | the boat |  |  |  | neither *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme boat=Trajectory |
| 4 | **escape** | infinitive | Tis *not said here* |  |  |  |  | otherwise *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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