---
title: Scarcely had he walked half-way to the nearest dwelling, when a man… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Scarcely had he walked half-way to the nearest dwelling, when a man stepped suddenly into the road before him. Who acts: Scarcely, man. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Homesick Hero, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Homesick Hero, sentence 118

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Scarcely had he walked half-way to the nearest dwelling, when a man stepped suddenly into the road before him.

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**Who acts:** Scarcely, man · **What happens:** have, walk, step · **To what, where:** way, road

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Homesick Hero. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Scarcely, man), 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:pg66819:12:118
# text = Scarcely had he walked half-way to the nearest dwelling, when a man stepped suddenly into the road before him.
1	Scarcely	Scarcely	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
5	half	half	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	nearest	near	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	11	amod	_	_
11	dwelling	dwelling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	stepped	step	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	into	into	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	before	before	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Scarcely |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **walk** | past | Scarcely | way to the nearest dwelling |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **step** | past | a man |  |  | the road | before Scarcely | suddenly *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into road=Destination |

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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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