---
title: He had scarcely spoken when the sky was overcast and heavy gray clou… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: He had scarcely spoken when the sky was overcast and heavy gray clouds obscured the sun. The North Wind, like an untamed monster, came hurtling over the land, howling and shrieking, as fierce as a thousand wolves, as fleet as the swiftest reindeer. Who acts: Ilmarinen, heavy gray clouds. A sentence 
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Forging of the Sampo, sentence 17

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He had scarcely spoken when the sky was overcast and heavy gray clouds obscured the sun. The North Wind, like an untamed monster, came hurtling over the land, howling and shrieking, as fierce as a thousand wolves, as fleet as the swiftest reindeer.

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**Who acts:** Ilmarinen, heavy gray clouds · **What happens:** speak, overcast, obscure, untam, come, hurtle · **To what, where:** sky, North Wind, land · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Forging 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 (Ilmarinen, heavy gray clouds), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66819:11:17
# text = He had scarcely spoken when the sky was overcast and heavy gray clouds obscured the sun. The North Wind, like an untamed monster, came hurtling over the land, howling and shrieking, as fierce as a thousand wolves, as fleet as the swiftest reindeer.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	overcast	overcast	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	gray	gray	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	obscured	obscure	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	sun.	Sunday	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	North	North	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	Wind	Wind	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	like	like	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	untamed	untam	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
24	monster	monster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
27	hurtling	hurtle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
28	over	over	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	howling	howl	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	conj	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	shrieking	shriek	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	as	as	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	fierce	fierce	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	conj	_	_
38	as	as	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	41	nummod	_	_
41	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
43	as	as	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	fleet	fleet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
45	as	as	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	swiftest	swift	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	48	amod	_	_
48	reindeer	reindeer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · perfect | Ilmarinen |  |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **overcast** | past · passive |  | the sky |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: subject=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **obscure** | past | heavy gray clouds | the North Wind |  |  | sunday |  | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent wind=Patient |
| 4 | **untam** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **come** | past | heavy gray clouds *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as fleet as the swiftest reindeer | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **hurtle** | gerund | heavy gray clouds *not said here* |  |  | the land |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over land=Trajectory |
| 7 | **howl** | gerund | heavy gray clouds *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **shriek** | gerund | heavy gray clouds *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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.

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**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.

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