---
title: “Wisest and skilfulest of metal workers, why do you speak in riddles… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “Wisest and skilfulest of metal workers, why do you speak in riddles?” said the Minstrel, appearing to be hurt. Who acts: you, Minstrel. 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 125

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“Wisest and skilfulest of metal workers, why do you speak in riddles?” said the Minstrel, appearing to be hurt.

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**Who acts:** you, Minstrel · **What happens:** speak, say, appear, hurt · **To what, where:** riddles · **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 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 (you, Minstrel), 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:pg66819:12:125
# text = “Wisest and skilfulest of metal workers, why do you speak in riddles?” said the Minstrel, appearing to be hurt.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Wisest	wise	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	17	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	skilfulest	skilful	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	2	conj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	metal	metal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	workers	worker	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
10	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	riddles	riddle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	appearing	appear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	hurt	hurt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present · do-support | you |  |  | riddles |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the Minstrel |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **appear** | gerund | the Minstrel *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **hurt** | to-infinitive · passive | the Minstrel *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» |

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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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