The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Maid of the Morning, sentence 92
He answered her gently, persuasively, and his words were full of guile: “O wise and beautiful maid of the morning, I have been speaking to you in riddles, trusting that you would understand their secret meaning.
Who acts: Wainamoinen, words, maiden · What happens: answer, be, speak, trust, understand, word · To what, where: maiden, riddles, secret meaning · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Maid of the Morning. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Wainamoinen, words, maiden), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 answered | nsubj |
| 2 | answered | answer | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 answered | obj |
| 4 | gently | gently | ADV | _ | 2 answered | advmod |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 persuasively | punct |
| 6 | persuasively | persuasively | ADV | _ | 2 answered | advmod |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 full | punct |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 full | cc |
| 9 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 words | nmod:poss |
| 10 | words | word | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 full | nsubj |
| 11 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 full | cop |
| 12 | full | full | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 answered | parataxis |
| 13 | of | of | ADP | _ | 14 guile | case |
| 14 | guile | guile | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 full | obl |
| 15 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 18 wise | punct |
| 16 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 18 wise | punct |
| 17 | O | o | INTJ | _ | 18 wise | discourse |
| 18 | wise | wise | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 full | parataxis |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 21 maid | cc |
| 20 | beautiful | beautiful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 21 maid | amod |
| 21 | maid | maid | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 wise | conj |
| 22 | of | of | ADP | _ | 24 morning | case |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 morning | det |
| 24 | morning | morning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 maid | nmod |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 speaking | punct |
| 26 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 29 speaking | nsubj |
| 27 | have | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 29 speaking | aux |
| 28 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 29 speaking | aux |
| 29 | speaking | speak | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 2 answered | advcl |
| 30 | to | to | ADP | _ | 31 you | case |
| 31 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 29 speaking | obl |
| 32 | in | in | ADP | _ | 33 riddles | case |
| 33 | riddles | riddle | NOUN | Number=Plur | 29 speaking | obl |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 trusting | punct |
| 35 | trusting | trust | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 29 speaking | conj |
| 36 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 39 understand | mark |
| 37 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 39 understand | nsubj |
| 38 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 39 understand | aux |
| 39 | understand | understand | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 35 trusting | ccomp |
| 40 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 42 meaning | nmod:poss |
| 41 | secret | secret | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 42 meaning | amod |
| 42 | meaning | meaning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 understand | obj |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 answered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | answer speech: assert | past | Wainamoinen | maiden | gently, persuasively property | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent she=Eventuality | |||
| 2 | is | past | Wainamoinen's words | of guile; full property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | speak speech: other in a quote | present · perfect · progressive | Wainamoinen | maiden | riddles | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to you=Co-Agent | |||
| 4 | trust in a quote | gerund | Wainamoinen not said here | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 5 | understand in a quote | would | maiden | words's secret meaning | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer meaning=Stimulus | ||||
| 6 | word | Wainamoinen | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent | ||||||
| 7 | mean in a quote | words = word | nom meaning «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
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.
Text: «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 66819 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/19/92/