The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Fate of the Sampo, sentence 136
Note A.—A very long time ago, among the ancestors of the people known as Finns, there were professional minstrels called runolainen, whose business it was to preserve the memory of the national songs, folk-lore tales, and old sagas of the race.
Who acts: you, professional minstrels, business · What happens: note, know, be, call · To what, where: A., people, runolainen · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Fate of the Sampo. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, professional minstrels, business), 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 | Note | note | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | A. | A. | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Note | obj |
| 3 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 8 ago | punct |
| 4 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 time | det |
| 5 | very | very | ADV | _ | 6 long | advmod |
| 6 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 time | amod |
| 7 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 ago | obl:unmarked |
| 8 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 1 Note | advmod |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 ancestors | punct |
| 10 | among | among | ADP | _ | 12 ancestors | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 ancestors | det |
| 12 | ancestors | ancestor | NOUN | Number=Plur | 1 Note | obl |
| 13 | of | of | ADP | _ | 15 people | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 people | det |
| 15 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 ancestors | nmod |
| 16 | known | know | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 15 people | acl |
| 17 | as | as | ADP | _ | 18 Finns | case |
| 18 | Finns | finn | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 known | obl |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 were | punct |
| 20 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 21 were | expl |
| 21 | were | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 preserve | advcl |
| 22 | professional | professional | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 minstrels | amod |
| 23 | minstrels | minstrel | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 were | nsubj |
| 24 | called | call | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 23 minstrels | acl |
| 25 | runolainen | runolainen | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 called | xcomp |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 business | punct |
| 27 | whose | whose | PRON | Poss=Yes PronType=Rel | 28 business | nmod:poss |
| 28 | business | business | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 runolainen | conj |
| 29 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 preserve | nsubj |
| 30 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 preserve | cop |
| 31 | to | to | PART | _ | 32 preserve | mark |
| 32 | preserve | preserve | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 1 Note | parataxis |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 memory | det |
| 34 | memory | memory | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 preserve | obj |
| 35 | of | of | ADP | _ | 38 songs | case |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 songs | det |
| 37 | national | national | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 songs | amod |
| 38 | songs | song | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 memory | nmod |
| 39 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 tales | punct |
| 40 | folk | folk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 lore | compound |
| 41 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 40 folk | punct |
| 42 | lore | lore | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 tales | compound |
| 43 | tales | tale | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 songs | conj |
| 44 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 47 sagas | punct |
| 45 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 47 sagas | cc |
| 46 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 47 sagas | amod |
| 47 | sagas | saga | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 memory | conj |
| 48 | of | of | ADP | _ | 50 race | case |
| 49 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 50 race | det |
| 50 | race | race | NOUN | Number=Sing | 47 sagas | nmod |
| 51 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Note | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | note | imperative | you not said here | A. | among the ancestors of the people; ago property | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent a.=Topic | |||
| 2 | know | participle | the people not said here | as Finns | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer as finn=Attribute | ||||
| 3 | be | past | professional minstrels | there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 4 | call | participle | professional minstrels not said here | runolainen and runolainen and runolainen's business's business | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 5 | is | past | business | the memory of the national songs and lore tales and old sagas of the race obj; preserve property | tree rules |
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/pg66819/38/136/