---
title: Were I not here to note the change of seasons, the songbirds would s… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Were I not here to note the change of seasons, the songbirds would surely forget to come, the flowers would neglect to bloom, the cranberries would perish ungathered. Who acts: I, songbirds, flowers, cranberries. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Homesic
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Homesick Hero, sentence 41

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Were I not here to note the change of seasons, the songbirds would surely forget to come, the flowers would neglect to bloom, the cranberries would perish ungathered.

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**Who acts:** I, songbirds, flowers, cranberries, seasons · **What happens:** not be, note, forget, not come, neglect, not bloom · **To what, where:** change

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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 (I, songbirds, flowers, cranberries), 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:pg66819:12:41
# text = Were I not here to note the change of seasons, the songbirds would surely forget to come, the flowers would neglect to bloom, the cranberries would perish ungathered.
1	Were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	note	note	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	change	change	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	seasons	season	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	songbirds	songbird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	forget	forget	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	neglect	neglect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	parataxis	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	bloom	bloom	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	cranberries	cranberry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	perish	perish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
31	ungathered	ungather	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | I |  |  |  |  | here *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **note** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | the change of seasons |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent change=Topic |
| 3 | **forget** | would | the songbirds |  |  |  |  | surely *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **come** | to-infinitive | the songbirds *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **neglect** | would | the flowers |  |  |  |  |  | vn neglect-75.1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **bloom** | to-infinitive | the flowers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **perish** | would | the cranberries |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **ungather** | participle | the cranberries *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **change** |  | seasons |  |  |  |  |  | nom change «event intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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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