---
title: No hammer was to be used in the work of building, but every nail and… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: No hammer was to be used in the work of building, but every nail and spike must be driven in the right place by a magic word that was known only to the prince of wizards, the first of all minstrels. Who acts: building. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The U
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/13/41/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old No…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/) / [The Unfinished Boat](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/13/) / 41

# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Unfinished Boat, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No hammer was to be used in the work of building, but every nail and spike must be driven in the right place by a magic word that was known only to the prince of wizards, the first of all minstrels.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** building · **What happens:** use, drive, know, work · **To what, where:** hammer, work, nail, right place, magic word

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (building), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66819:13:41
# text = No hammer was to be used in the work of building, but every nail and spike must be driven in the right place by a magic word that was known only to the prince of wizards, the first of all minstrels.
1	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	2	det	_	_
2	hammer	hammer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	building	building	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
14	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	nail	nail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	spike	spike	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
18	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	driven	drive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	by	by	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	magic	magic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
29	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj:pass	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux:pass	_	_
31	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl:relcl	_	_
32	only	only	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	wizards	wizard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	24	amod	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	43	det	_	_
43	minstrels	minstrel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **use** | past · passive |  | no hammer |  | the work of building |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **drive** | must · passive |  | every nail and spike |  | the right place by a magic word |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in place=Destination |
| 3 | **know** | past · passive |  | a magic word |  |  |  | to the prince of wizards | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus |
| 4 | **work** |  | building |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/13/40/)
- next →: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/13/42/)
- ↑ back to [The Unfinished Boat](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/13/)