---
title: Never were two pledged lovers more stanch and true than the ancient… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Never were two pledged lovers more stanch and true than the ancient Minstrel and the youthful Smith, and their affection for each other grew stronger and stronger as the days went by. Who acts: two pledged lovers, affection, days. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Ba
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Unfinished Boat, sentence 1

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Never were two pledged lovers more stanch and true than the ancient Minstrel and the youthful Smith, and their affection for each other grew stronger and stronger as the days went by.

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**Who acts:** two pledged lovers, affection, days · **What happens:** pledge, not be, be, grow, go by · **To what, where:** more stanch

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Unfinished Boat. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two pledged lovers, affection, days), 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:pg66819:13:1
# text = Never were two pledged lovers more stanch and true than the ancient Minstrel and the youthful Smith, and their affection for each other grew stronger and stronger as the days went by.
1	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
3	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
4	pledged	pledge	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	amod	_	_
5	lovers	lover	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	amod	_	_
7	stanch	stanch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
10	than	than	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	ancient	ancient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	youthful	youthful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	Smith	Smith	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	affection	affection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	nmod	_	_
24	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	fixed	_	_
25	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
26	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	25	xcomp	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	26	conj	_	_
29	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
32	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
33	by	by	ADP	IN	_	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pledge** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | past | two pledged lovers | more stanch |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | two pledged lovers *not said here* |  |  |  |  | than the ancient Minstrel and the youthful Smith | tree rules |
| 4 | **grow** | past | lovers's affection for each |  |  |  |  | strong *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **go by** | past | the days |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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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