---
title: He twirled it in the air as blacksmiths sometimes twirl small masses… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: He twirled it in the air as blacksmiths sometimes twirl small masses of half-molten iron; then he held it firmly on his anvil of granite, while with quick and steady strokes he beat it with his heavy hammer. Who acts: Ilmarinen, blacksmiths. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» 
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Forging of the Sampo, sentence 38

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He twirled it in the air as blacksmiths sometimes twirl small masses of half-molten iron; then he held it firmly on his anvil of granite, while with quick and steady strokes he beat it with his heavy hammer.

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**Who acts:** Ilmarinen, blacksmiths · **What happens:** twirl, hold, beat · **To what, where:** mixture, air, small masses, anvil

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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, blacksmiths), 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:pg66819:11:38
# text = He twirled it in the air as blacksmiths sometimes twirl small masses of half-molten iron; then he held it firmly on his anvil of granite, while with quick and steady strokes he beat it with his heavy hammer.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	twirled	twirl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	blacksmiths	blacksmith	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
9	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	10	advmod	_	_
10	twirl	twirl	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
11	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	masses	mass	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	molten	molten	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
19	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	firmly	firmly	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	anvil	anvil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	granite	granite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
30	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
32	quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	steady	steady	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	conj	_	_
35	strokes	stroke	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	obl	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	beat	beat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
38	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	_
39	with	with	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
40	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
41	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	hammer	hammer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **twirl** | past | Ilmarinen | mixture |  | the air |  |  | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent it=Material |
| 2 | **twirl** | present | blacksmiths | small masses of molten iron |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent mass=Material |
| 3 | **hold** | past | Ilmarinen | mixture |  | Ilmarinen's anvil of granite | then | firmly *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme on anvil=Location |
| 4 | **beat** | past | Ilmarinen | mixture |  |  |  | with quick strokes; with Ilmarinen's heavy hammer | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with stroke=Instrument |

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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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