---
title: “My cunning may detain him for a while; Tuoni may hold him for a sea… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “My cunning may detain him for a while; Tuoni may hold him for a season; but it is not given to us to destroy him. Who acts: cunning, Tuoni. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Hag of the Rock, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Hag of the Rock, sentence 19

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“My cunning may detain him for a while; Tuoni may hold him for a season; but it is not given to us to destroy him.

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**Who acts:** cunning, Tuoni · **What happens:** detain, hold, not give, destroy · **To what, where:** man, cunning, us

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Hag of the Rock. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cunning, Tuoni), 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:pg66819:15:19
# text = “My cunning may detain him for a while; Tuoni may hold him for a season; but it is not given to us to destroy him.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	cunning	cunning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	detain	detain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
11	Tuoni	Tuoni	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	season	season	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	parataxis	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	destroy	destroy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **detain** *in a quote* | may | My cunning | man |  |  | while |  | vn confine-92 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **hold** *in a quote* | may | Tuoni | man |  |  | season |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **give** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | cunning | us |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Theme to we=Recipient |
| 4 | **destroy** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | man |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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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