---
title: “Tell me, Ilmarinen,” said the Minstrel, “did you perform my errand? — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “Tell me, Ilmarinen,” said the Minstrel, “did you perform my errand? Who acts: Minstrel, you. 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 135

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“Tell me, Ilmarinen,” said the Minstrel, “did you perform my errand?

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**Who acts:** Minstrel, you · **What happens:** tell, say, perform · **To what, where:** Ilmarinen, Minstrel, errand · **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 (Minstrel, you), 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:pg66819:12:135
# text = “Tell me, Ilmarinen,” said the Minstrel, “did you perform my errand?
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	Ilmarinen	Ilmarinen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	perform	perform	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
16	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	errand	errand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive |  | Ilmarinen | the Minstrel *= minstrel* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the Minstrel |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **perform** *in a quote* | past · do-support | you | my errand |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent errand=Theme |

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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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