The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Wedding Feast, sentence 104
He would sing the sea to honey, Sing the stones to precious money, Sing the sand to foaming ale, Sing the rocks to rain and hail, And the mountains sing to lakes, And the hilltops sing to cakes.
Who acts: Creator, mountains, hilltops · What happens: sing, foam · To what, where: sea, stones, precious money, sand, ale, rocks
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Wedding Feast. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Creator, mountains, hilltops), 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 | 3 sing | nsubj |
| 2 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 3 sing | aux |
| 3 | sing | sing | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 sea | det |
| 5 | sea | sea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 sing | obj |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 honey | mark |
| 7 | honey | honey | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 sea | acl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 Sing | punct |
| 9 | Sing | sing | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 sing | conj |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 stones | det |
| 11 | stones | stone | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 Sing | obj |
| 12 | to | to | ADP | _ | 14 money | case |
| 13 | precious | precious | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 money | amod |
| 14 | money | money | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 Sing | obl |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 Sing | punct |
| 16 | Sing | sing | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 sing | conj |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 sand | det |
| 18 | sand | sand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 Sing | obj |
| 19 | to | to | SCONJ | _ | 20 foaming | mark |
| 20 | foaming | foam | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 16 Sing | advcl |
| 21 | ale | ale | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 foaming | obj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 Sing | punct |
| 23 | Sing | sing | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 sing | conj |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 rocks | det |
| 25 | rocks | rock | NOUN | Number=Plur | 23 Sing | obj |
| 26 | to | to | PART | _ | 27 rain | mark |
| 27 | rain | rain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 rocks | nmod |
| 28 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 29 hail | cc |
| 29 | hail | hail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 rain | conj |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 sing | punct |
| 31 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 sing | cc |
| 32 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 mountains | det |
| 33 | mountains | mountain | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 sing | nsubj |
| 34 | sing | sing | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 sing | parataxis |
| 35 | to | to | ADP | _ | 36 lakes | case |
| 36 | lakes | lake | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 sing | obl |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 sing | punct |
| 38 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 41 sing | cc |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 hilltops | det |
| 40 | hilltops | hilltop | NOUN | Number=Plur | 41 sing | nsubj |
| 41 | sing | sing | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 34 sing | conj |
| 42 | to | to | ADP | _ | 43 cakes | case |
| 43 | cakes | cake | NOUN | Number=Plur | 41 sing | obl |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 sing | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sing speech: express | would | Creator | the sea honey | vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location sea=Theme | ||||
| 2 | sing speech: express | infinitive | Creator not said here | the stones | precious money | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent stone=Topic to money=Recipient | |||
| 3 | sing speech: express | infinitive | Creator not said here | the sand | vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location sand=Theme | ||||
| 4 | foam | gerund | Creator not said here | ale | vn entity_specific_modes_being-47.2 «NP.location V NP»: agent=Location ale=Theme | ||||
| 5 | sing speech: express | infinitive | Creator not said here | the rocks rain and hail | vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location rock=Theme | ||||
| 6 | sing speech: express | present | the mountains | lakes | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to lake=Recipient | ||||
| 7 | sing speech: express | present | the hilltops | cakes | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to cake=Recipient |
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/pg66819/27/104/