---
title: So, with quivering lips and downcast eyes he spoke: “Fairest of maid… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: So, with quivering lips and downcast eyes he spoke: “Fairest of maidens, my task is done. Who acts: quivering lips, my. 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 17

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So, with quivering lips and downcast eyes he spoke: “Fairest of maidens, my task is done.

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**Who acts:** quivering lips, my · **What happens:** quiver, speak, do, task · **To what, where:** task · **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 (quivering lips, my), 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:pg66819:12:17
# text = So, with quivering lips and downcast eyes he spoke: “Fairest of maidens, my task is done.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	quivering	quiver	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	amod	_	_
5	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	downcast	downcast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Fairest	fair	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	10	advcl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	maidens	maiden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **quiver** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_states-40.6 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | quivering lips and downcast eyes |  |  |  |  | Ilmarinen *nsubj* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | my task |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 4 | **task** *in a quote* |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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