---
title: Its branches reached out on every side nine fathoms from the trunk,… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Its branches reached out on every side nine fathoms from the trunk, and its topmost twigs seemed to brush the sky. Who acts: topmost twigs. 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 87

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Its branches reached out on every side nine fathoms from the trunk, and its topmost twigs seemed to brush the sky.

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**Who acts:** topmost twigs · **What happens:** reach out, seem, brush · **To what, where:** branches, side, sky

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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 (topmost twigs), 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:pg66819:13:87
# text = Its branches reached out on every side nine fathoms from the trunk, and its topmost twigs seemed to brush the sky.
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	reached	reach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	out	out	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
7	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	nine	nine	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	fathoms	fathom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	topmost	topmost	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	twigs	twig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	brush	brush	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach out** | participle · passive |  | monarch's branches |  | every side  nine fathoms from the trunk |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **seem** | past | monarch's topmost twigs |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **brush** | to-infinitive | monarch's topmost twigs *not said here* | the sky |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent sky=Theme |

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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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