The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Flight, sentence 38
Then he began to play softly upon the kantele; and as he played, the Sampo began to rock to and fro, it turned itself around as though breaking away from the chains which held it.
Who acts: boaster, Sampo, it, chains · What happens: begin, play, fro, turn around, break away, hold · To what, where: rock, kantele
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Flight. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boaster, Sampo, it, chains), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 began | advmod |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 began | nsubj |
| 3 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | PART | _ | 5 play | mark |
| 5 | play | play | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 began | xcomp |
| 6 | softly | softly | ADV | _ | 5 play | advmod |
| 7 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 9 kantele | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 kantele | det |
| 9 | kantele | kantele | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 play | obl |
| 10 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 14 played | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 played | cc |
| 12 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 14 played | mark |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 played | nsubj |
| 14 | played | play | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 began | parataxis |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 began | punct |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 Sampo | det |
| 17 | Sampo | Sampo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 18 began | nsubj |
| 18 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 played | conj |
| 19 | to | to | PART | _ | 20 rock | mark |
| 20 | rock | rock | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 began | obj |
| 21 | to | to | ADP | _ | 23 fro | case |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 fro | cc |
| 23 | fro | fro | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 18 began | xcomp |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 turned | punct |
| 25 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 turned | nsubj |
| 26 | turned | turn | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 played | conj |
| 27 | itself | itself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 26 turned | obj |
| 28 | around | around | ADV | _ | 26 turned | advmod |
| 29 | as | as | ADV | _ | 26 turned | advmod |
| 30 | though | though | SCONJ | _ | 31 breaking | mark |
| 31 | breaking | break | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 26 turned | advcl |
| 32 | away | away | ADV | _ | 31 breaking | advmod |
| 33 | from | from | ADP | _ | 35 chains | case |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 chains | det |
| 35 | chains | chain | NOUN | Number=Plur | 31 breaking | obl |
| 36 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 37 held | nsubj |
| 37 | held | hold | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 35 chains | acl:relcl |
| 38 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 37 held | obj |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 began | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | begin | past | boaster | then | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 2 | play | to-infinitive | boaster not said here | upon the kantele; softly property | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | play | past | boaster | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | begin | past | the Sampo | rock | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | fro | infinitive | the Sampo not said here | tree rules | |||||
| 6 | turn around | past | it | kantele | around property | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V ADJ.result»: agent=Theme itself=Result | |||
| 7 | break away | gerund | from the chains; away property | vn split-23.2 «NP V PP.co-patient»: agent=Patient from chain=Co-Patient | |||||
| 8 | hold | past | the chains | kantele | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
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/pg66819/36/38/