---
title: Perhaps the words that I need so badly have been stolen by some of t… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Perhaps the words that I need so badly have been stolen by some of these birds. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Unfinished Boat, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Unfinished Boat, sentence 129

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Perhaps the words that I need so badly have been stolen by some of these birds.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** need, steal · **To what, where:** words

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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 (I), 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:pg66819:13:129
# text = Perhaps the words that I need so badly have been stolen by some of these birds.
1	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	6	obj	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	need	need	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	badly	badly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
9	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	stolen	steal	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	11	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	16	det	_	_
16	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **need** | present | I | the words |  |  |  | badly *property* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot that=Theme |
| 2 | **steal** | present · perfect · passive |  | the words |  |  |  | by some of this birds; perhaps *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=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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