---
title: Softly, very softly, she began to sing a weird lullaby—a song of the… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Softly, very softly, she began to sing a weird lullaby—a song of the silent land. Who acts: errand, silent land. 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 143

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Softly, very softly, she began to sing a weird lullaby—a song of the silent land.

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**Who acts:** errand, silent land · **What happens:** begin, sing · **To what, where:** weird lullaby

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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: who acts (errand, silent land), 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:pg66819:14:143
# text = Softly, very softly, she began to sing a weird lullaby—a song of the silent land.
1	Softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	weird	weird	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	lullaby	lullaby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	appos	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | errand |  |  |  |  | softly *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | to-infinitive | errand *not said here* | a weird lullaby |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location lullaby=Theme |
| 3 | **sing** |  | the silent land |  |  |  |  |  | nom song «communication intransitive»: of=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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