---
title: “He is the first of all minstrels, a singer of sweet songs, a man of… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “He is the first of all minstrels, a singer of sweet songs, a man of honor, old and truthful. Who acts: Master. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Forging of the Sampo, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Forging of the Sampo, sentence 96

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“He is the first of all minstrels, a singer of sweet songs, a man of honor, old and truthful.

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**Who acts:** Master · **What happens:** be

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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 (Master), 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:pg66819:11:96
# text = “He is the first of all minstrels, a singer of sweet songs, a man of honor, old and truthful.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	det	_	_
8	minstrels	minstrel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	singer	singer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	sweet	sweet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	honor	honor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	truthful	truthful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Master |  |  |  |  | of all minstrels; first *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** *in a quote* |  | Master *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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