---
title: Trees grew along the shore, and there were thousands of them coverin… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Trees grew along the shore, and there were thousands of them covering the hillside; but they were small trees, mere saplings, and would be of little use in boat-building. Who acts: Trees, thousands. 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 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Trees grew along the shore, and there were thousands of them covering the hillside; but they were small trees, mere saplings, and would be of little use in boat-building.

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**Who acts:** Trees, thousands · **What happens:** grow, be, cover · **To what, where:** shore, hillside, small trees, boat building

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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 (Trees, thousands), 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:pg66819:13:43
# text = Trees grew along the shore, and there were thousands of them covering the hillside; but they were small trees, mere saplings, and would be of little use in boat-building.
1	Trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	along	along	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
9	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nmod	_	_
13	covering	cover	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	hillside	hillside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	mere	mere	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	saplings	sapling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
28	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	building	building	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | Trees |  |  | the shore |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme along shore=Location |
| 2 | **be** | past | thousands of Trees |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **cover** | gerund | thousands of Trees *not said here* | the hillside |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme hillside=Destination |
| 4 | **is a** | past | thousands *= thousand* | small trees and mere saplings |  |  |  | mere saplings *conj* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | would |  |  |  | boat building |  | of little use | tree rules |

<!-- .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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