---
title: And the little ripples on the beach laughed at him, and the sea bird… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: And the little ripples on the beach laughed at him, and the sea birds flapped their wings in his face, and he felt himself to be helpless. Who acts: little ripples, sea birds, plan. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Unfinished Boat, with its dependency t
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Unfinished Boat, sentence 126

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And the little ripples on the beach laughed at him, and the sea birds flapped their wings in his face, and he felt himself to be helpless.

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**Who acts:** little ripples, sea birds, plan · **What happens:** laugh, flap, feel, be · **To what, where:** wings, plan

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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 (little ripples, sea birds, plan), 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:pg66819:13:126
# text = And the little ripples on the beach laughed at him, and the sea birds flapped their wings in his face, and he felt himself to be helpless.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	ripples	ripple	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	beach	beach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	flapped	flap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
26	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	25	obj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
28	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	cop	_	_
29	helpless	helpless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | past | the little ripples on the beach |  |  |  |  | at plan | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **flap** | past | the sea birds | birds's wings |  |  |  | in plan's face | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent wing=Patient in face=Topic |
| 3 | **feel** | past | plan | plan |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive | plan *not said here* |  |  |  |  | helpless *property* | 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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