---
title: But in the brains of all these creatures he found not a single word,… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: But in the brains of all these creatures he found not a single word, nor yet so much as the half of one; and under the tongues of the swallows, there was nothing uncommon. Who acts: flock, nothing. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Unfinished Boat, with 
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Unfinished Boat, sentence 134

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But in the brains of all these creatures he found not a single word, nor yet so much as the half of one; and under the tongues of the swallows, there was nothing uncommon.

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**Who acts:** flock, nothing · **What happens:** not find, be · **To what, where:** single word, brains

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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, nothing), 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:pg66819:13:134
# text = But in the brains of all these creatures he found not a single word, nor yet so much as the half of one; and under the tongues of the swallows, there was nothing uncommon.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	brains	brain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	8	det:predet	_	_
7	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	19	cc	_	_
17	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	obj	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	19	nmod	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	under	under	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	tongues	tongue	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	swallows	swallow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
34	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	35	expl	_	_
35	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
36	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	35	nsubj	_	_
37	uncommon	uncommon	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	35	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **find** | past | flock | a single word |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent word=Theme much=Attribute |
| 2 | **be** | past | nothing |  |  | the brains of all creatures and the tongues of the swallows; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in brain=Location |

<!-- .note -->
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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