---
title: He slew a whole flock of swans; he killed great numbers of geese; an… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: He slew a whole flock of swans; he killed great numbers of geese; and hundreds of swallows fell, pierced by his unerring weapons. Who acts: flock, hundreds. 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
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Unfinished Boat, sentence 133

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He slew a whole flock of swans; he killed great numbers of geese; and hundreds of swallows fell, pierced by his unerring weapons.

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**Who acts:** flock, hundreds · **What happens:** slay, kill, fall, pierce · **To what, where:** whole flock, great numbers

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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 (flock, hundreds), 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:pg66819:13:133
# text = He slew a whole flock of swans; he killed great numbers of geese; and hundreds of swallows fell, pierced by his unerring weapons.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	slew	slay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	flock	flock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	numbers	number	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	geese	goose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	hundreds	hundred	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	swallows	swallow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
20	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	pierced	pierce	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	unerring	unerring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	weapons	weapon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **slay** | past | flock | a whole flock of swans |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flock=Patient |
| 2 | **kill** | past | flock | great numbers of geese |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent number=Theme |
| 3 | **fall** | past | hundreds of swallows |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **pierce** | participle | hundreds of swallows *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by flock's unerring weapons | vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

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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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