The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Barking Dogs, sentence 76
He looked seaward, then landward—but naught did he behold save, on this side, the blue water and the sloping shore and the fishermen’s huts, and, on that side, the brown marsh lands and the long, winding, indistinct roadway that led nowhere and came from everywhere.
Who acts: man, naught, indistinct roadway · What happens: look, behold, save, slope, wind, lead · To what, where: seaward, side, indistinct roadway
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Barking Dogs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, naught, indistinct roadway), 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 looked | nsubj |
| 2 | looked | look | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | seaward | seaward | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 looked | obj |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 landward | punct |
| 5 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 6 landward | advmod |
| 6 | landward | landward | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 looked | conj |
| 7 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 12 behold | punct |
| 8 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 12 behold | cc |
| 9 | naught | naught | PRON | PronType=Neg | 12 behold | nsubj |
| 10 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 behold | aux |
| 11 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 behold | nsubj |
| 12 | behold | behold | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 looked | conj |
| 13 | save | save | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 behold | xcomp |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 side | punct |
| 15 | on | on | ADP | _ | 17 side | case |
| 16 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 17 side | det |
| 17 | side | side | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 save | obj |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 water | punct |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 water | det |
| 20 | blue | blue | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 21 water | amod |
| 21 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 side | appos |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 shore | cc |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 shore | det |
| 24 | sloping | slope | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 25 shore | amod |
| 25 | shore | shore | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 water | conj |
| 26 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 huts | cc |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 fishermen | det |
| 28 | fishermen | fisherman | NOUN | Number=Plur | 30 huts | nmod:poss |
| 29 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 28 fishermen | case |
| 30 | huts | hut | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 water | conj |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 side | punct |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 side | cc |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 side | punct |
| 34 | on | on | ADP | _ | 36 side | case |
| 35 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 36 side | det |
| 36 | side | side | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 looked | parataxis |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 lands | punct |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 41 lands | det |
| 39 | brown | brown | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 lands | amod |
| 40 | marsh | marsh | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 lands | compound |
| 41 | lands | land | NOUN | Number=Plur | 36 side | appos |
| 42 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 44 long | cc |
| 43 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 44 long | det |
| 44 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 lands | conj |
| 45 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 46 winding | punct |
| 46 | winding | wind | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 44 long | conj |
| 47 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 49 roadway | punct |
| 48 | indistinct | indistinct | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 49 roadway | amod |
| 49 | roadway | roadway | NOUN | Number=Sing | 46 winding | obj |
| 50 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 51 led | nsubj |
| 51 | led | lead | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 49 roadway | acl:relcl |
| 52 | nowhere | nowhere | ADV | PronType=Neg | 51 led | advmod |
| 53 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 54 came | cc |
| 54 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 51 led | conj |
| 55 | from | from | ADP | _ | 56 everywhere | case |
| 56 | everywhere | everywhere | ADV | PronType=Tot | 54 came | obl |
| 57 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 looked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | look | past | man | seaward | that side parataxis | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme seaward=Attribute | |||
| 2 | behold | past · do-support | naught | man nsubj | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | save | infinitive | naught not said here | this side | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent side=Theme | ||||
| 4 | slope | gerund | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 5 | wind | gerund | man not said here | indistinct roadway | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent roadway=Theme | ||||
| 6 | lead | past | indistinct roadway | nowhere property | vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition | ||||
| 7 | come | past | indistinct roadway not said here | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from everywhere=Initial_Location |
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/pg66819/22/76/