---
title: The aspen groaned, and every one of its thousand leaves seemed to ha… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: The aspen groaned, and every one of its thousand leaves seemed to have a tongue as it softly murmured: “Surely, I am not fit for boat timber. Who acts: aspen, one, friend. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Unfinished Boat, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Unfinished Boat, sentence 64

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The aspen groaned, and every one of its thousand leaves seemed to have a tongue as it softly murmured: “Surely, I am not fit for boat timber.

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**Who acts:** aspen, one, friend · **What happens:** groan, seem, have, murmur, not be · **To what, where:** tongue · **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 (aspen, one, friend), 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:pg66819:13:64
# text = The aspen groaned, and every one of its thousand leaves seemed to have a tongue as it softly murmured: “Surely, I am not fit for boat timber.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	aspen	aspen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	groaned	groan	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
6	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
7	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
12	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	murmured	murmur	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
22	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	Surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	fit	fit	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advcl	_	_
29	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	timber	timber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **groan** | past | the aspen |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **seem** | past | every one of friend's thousand leaves |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **have** | to-infinitive | every one of friend's thousand leaves *not said here* | a tongue |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tongue=Patient |
| 4 | **murmur** *speech: other* | past | friend |  |  |  |  | softly *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present | friend |  |  |  |  | for boat timber; fit, surely *property* | tree rules |

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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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