---
title: Yet he answered her with becoming gentleness—for was she not the mot… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Yet he answered her with becoming gentleness—for was she not the mother of the Maid of Beauty? Who acts: brain, woman. 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 68

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Yet he answered her with becoming gentleness—for was she not the mother of the Maid of Beauty?

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**Who acts:** brain, woman · **What happens:** answer, become, not be · **To what, where:** woman, gentleness

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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 (brain, woman), 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:pg66819:12:68
# text = Yet he answered her with becoming gentleness—for was she not the mother of the Maid of Beauty?
1	Yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
6	becoming	become	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
7	gentleness	gentleness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Maid	Maid	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	Beauty	Beauty	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | brain |  | woman |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent she=Eventuality |
| 2 | **become** | gerund | brain *not said here* | gentleness |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **is** | past | woman |  |  |  |  | for the mother; of the Maid of Beauty | tree rules |

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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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