---
title: Men called him Sampsa, and they told many a tale of his wisdom and c… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Men called him Sampsa, and they told many a tale of his wisdom and cunning, and how in former times he had guarded the treasures of kings. Who acts: Men, dwarf, wisdom. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Unfinished Boat, with its dependency tree and the p
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/13/51/)

<!-- 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/) / 51

# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Unfinished Boat, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Men called him Sampsa, and they told many a tale of his wisdom and cunning, and how in former times he had guarded the treasures of kings.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Men, dwarf, wisdom · **What happens:** call, tell, guard, treasure · **To what, where:** dwarf, many tale, treasures, kings · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (Men, dwarf, wisdom), 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:pg66819:13:51
# text = Men called him Sampsa, and they told many a tale of his wisdom and cunning, and how in former times he had guarded the treasures of kings.
1	Men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	Sampsa	Sampsa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	cunning	cunning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
19	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	guarded	guard	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	treasures	treasure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	kings	king	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | past | Men |  | dwarf |  |  | Sampsa *xcomp* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | men *= man* | a many tale of dwarf's wisdom and cunning |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **guard** | past · perfect | dwarf | the treasures of kings |  |  | time |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent treasure=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **tell** |  | dwarf's wisdom and cunning |  |  |  |  |  | nom tale «communication intransitive»: of=agent |
| 5 | **treasure** |  |  | kings |  |  |  |  | nom treasure «possession transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/13/50/)
- next →: [sentence 52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/13/52/)
- ↑ back to [The Unfinished Boat](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/13/)