---
title: “But a promise is a promise,” gently returned the Smith; “and so I d… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “But a promise is a promise,” gently returned the Smith; “and so I demand of you to fulfil it.” Who acts: promise, Mistress. 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 99

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“But a promise is a promise,” gently returned the Smith; “and so I demand of you to fulfil it.”

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**Who acts:** promise, Mistress · **What happens:** be, return, demand, fulfil · **To what, where:** promise, Smith

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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 (promise, Mistress), 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:pg66819:11:99
# text = “But a promise is a promise,” gently returned the Smith; “and so I demand of you to fulfil it.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	promise	promise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	promise	promise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Smith	Smith	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	demand	demand	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	fulfil	fulfil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | a promise | a promise |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **return** | past |  | the Smith |  |  |  | gently *property* | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent smith=Theme |
| 3 | **demand** *speech: request* *in a quote* | present | the Mistress *= mistress* |  |  |  |  | of you | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **fulfil** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the Mistress *= mistress* *not said here* | promise |  |  |  |  | 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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