---
title: He told no one of his project, but he clenched his hands together an… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: He told no one of his project, but he clenched his hands together and shut his teeth hard with determination. Who acts: maiden. 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 31

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He told no one of his project, but he clenched his hands together and shut his teeth hard with determination.

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**Who acts:** maiden · **What happens:** tell, clench, shut, project · **To what, where:** one, hands, teeth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (maiden), 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:pg66819:13:31
# text = He told no one of his project, but he clenched his hands together and shut his teeth hard with determination.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	project	project	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	clenched	clench	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	together	together	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	shut	shut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	determination	determination	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	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 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | maiden | no one of maiden's project |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent one=Recipient |
| 2 | **clench** | past | maiden | maiden's hands |  |  |  | together *property* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Patient |
| 3 | **shut** | past | maiden *not said here* | maiden's teeth |  |  |  | with determination; hard *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent tooth=Patient with determination=Instrument |
| 4 | **project** |  | maiden |  |  |  |  |  | nom project «act transitive»: poss=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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