---
title: She tried to express her feelings in words, but her voice was cracke… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: She tried to express her feelings in words, but her voice was cracked and broken, and her speech sounded like the yelping of a gray wolf in the frozen marshes. Who acts: face, speech, gray wolf. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Forging of the Sampo, wit
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Forging of the Sampo, sentence 63

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She tried to express her feelings in words, but her voice was cracked and broken, and her speech sounded like the yelping of a gray wolf in the frozen marshes.

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**Who acts:** face, speech, gray wolf · **What happens:** try, express, crack, break, sound, freeze · **To what, where:** feelings, words, voice, frozen marshes · **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 (face, speech, gray wolf), 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:pg66819:11:63
# text = She tried to express her feelings in words, but her voice was cracked and broken, and her speech sounded like the yelping of a gray wolf in the frozen marshes.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	express	express	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	feelings	feeling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	cracked	crack	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	speech	speech	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	sounded	sound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
22	like	like	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	yelping	yelping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	gray	gray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	frozen	freeze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	amod	_	_
32	marshes	marsh	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | face |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **express** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | face *not said here* | face's feelings |  | words |  |  | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feeling=Theme |
| 3 | **crack** | past · passive |  | face's voice |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **break** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **sound** | past | face's speech |  |  | the frozen marshes |  | like the yelping of a gray wolf | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in marsh=Location |
| 6 | **freeze** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **speak** |  | face |  |  |  |  |  | nom speech «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 8 | **yelp** |  | a gray wolf |  |  |  |  |  | nom yelping «event intransitive»: of=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.

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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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