---
title: Vile things in plenty—the poison of serpents, the spawn of toads, sh… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Vile things in plenty—the poison of serpents, the spawn of toads, shiny lizards, squirming worms—a medley of horrors indescribable and foul. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Land of Tuonela, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Land of Tuonela, sentence 131

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Vile things in plenty—the poison of serpents, the spawn of toads, shiny lizards, squirming worms—a medley of horrors indescribable and foul.

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**What happens:** squirm · **To what, where:** squirming worms

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Land of Tuonela. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg66819:14:131
# text = Vile things in plenty—the poison of serpents, the spawn of toads, shiny lizards, squirming worms—a medley of horrors indescribable and foul.
1	Vile	vile	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	plenty	plenty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	serpents	serpent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	spawn	spawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	toads	toad	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	shiny	shiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	lizards	lizard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	squirming	squirm	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	amod	_	_
20	worms	worm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	medley	medley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	horrors	horror	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
26	indescribable	indescribable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	foul	foul	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **squirm** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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