---
title: He slew an army of squirrels; he killed a field full of reindeer; he… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: He slew an army of squirrels; he killed a field full of reindeer; he slaughtered gray wolves without number. Who acts: task. 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 140

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He slew an army of squirrels; he killed a field full of reindeer; he slaughtered gray wolves without number.

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**Who acts:** task · **What happens:** slay, kill, slaughter · **To what, where:** army, field, gray wolves

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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 (task), 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:pg66819:13:140
# text = He slew an army of squirrels; he killed a field full of reindeer; he slaughtered gray wolves without number.
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	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	squirrels	squirrel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	reindeer	reindeer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	slaughtered	slaughter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
18	gray	gray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
20	without	without	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	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 | task | a army of squirrels |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent army=Patient |
| 2 | **kill** | past | task | a field |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent field=Theme |
| 3 | **slaughter** | past | task | gray wolves |  |  |  | without number | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wolf=Patient |

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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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