---
title: Months ago I began to build a magic vessel in which to sail the nort… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Months ago I began to build a magic vessel in which to sail the northern seas. Who acts: I. 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 90

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Months ago I began to build a magic vessel in which to sail the northern seas.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** begin, build, sail · **To what, where:** magic vessel, northern seas

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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 (I), 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:pg66819:14:90
# text = Months ago I began to build a magic vessel in which to sail the northern seas.
1	Months	month	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl:unmarked	_	_
2	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	obl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	sail	sail	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl:relcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	northern	northern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	seas	sea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | I |  |  |  |  | ago *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **build** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | a magic vessel |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset vessel=Product |
| 3 | **sail** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | the northern seas |  | a magic vessel |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme sea=Trajectory |

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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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