---
title: And now the snow was melting, the grass was green on the hillsides,… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: And now the snow was melting, the grass was green on the hillsides, the reeds were springing up in the marshes, and the birds were twittering under the eaves. Who acts: snow, grass, reeds, birds. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Caldron, with its depend
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/10/32/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old No…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/) / [The Caldron](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/10/) / 32

# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Caldron, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And now the snow was melting, the grass was green on the hillsides, the reeds were springing up in the marshes, and the birds were twittering under the eaves.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** snow, grass, reeds, birds · **What happens:** melt, be, spring up, twitter · **To what, where:** hillsides, marshes, eaves

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Caldron. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (snow, grass, reeds, birds), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66819:10:32
# text = And now the snow was melting, the grass was green on the hillsides, the reeds were springing up in the marshes, and the birds were twittering under the eaves.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	melting	melt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	hillsides	hillside	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	reeds	reed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	springing	spring	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	acl	_	_
20	up	up	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	marshes	marsh	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	twittering	twitter	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
30	under	under	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	eaves	eave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **melt** | past · progressive | the snow |  |  |  | now |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | the grass |  |  | the hillsides |  | green *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **spring up** | past · progressive | the reeds | the hillsides *not said here* |  | the marshes |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location hillside=Theme |
| 4 | **twitter** | past · progressive | the birds |  |  | the eaves |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/10/31/)
- next →: [sentence 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/10/33/)
- ↑ back to [The Caldron](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/10/)