---
title: “Omens of good fortune are written on my branches,” said the oak. — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “Omens of good fortune are written on my branches,” said the oak. Who acts: oak. 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 98

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“Omens of good fortune are written on my branches,” said the oak.

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**Who acts:** oak · **What happens:** write, say, omen · **To what, where:** Omens, branches, good fortune · **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 (oak), 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:pg66819:13:98
# text = “Omens of good fortune are written on my branches,” said the oak.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Omens	omen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	fortune	fortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	ccomp	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | Omens of good fortune |  | my branches |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on branch=Destination |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the oak |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **omen** *in a quote* |  |  | good fortune |  |  |  |  | nom omen «event transitive»: of=patient |

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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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