---
title: How, then, would it be possible for a living man, a breathing hero,… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: How, then, would it be possible for a living man, a breathing hero, to escape through this wall of nets so closely woven and so cunningly spread? Who acts: fish. 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 pragmati
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Hag of the Rock, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How, then, would it be possible for a living man, a breathing hero, to escape through this wall of nets so closely woven and so cunningly spread?

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**Who acts:** fish · **What happens:** be, escape, weave, spread · **To what, where:** wall

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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 (fish), 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:pg66819:15:35
# text = How, then, would it be possible for a living man, a breathing hero, to escape through this wall of nets so closely woven and so cunningly spread?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
8	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	living	living	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	breathing	breathing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	hero	hero	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	escape	escape	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
20	through	through	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
22	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	nets	net	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
26	closely	closely	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	woven	weave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	advcl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	cunningly	cunningly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
31	spread	spread	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would | fish |  |  |  | then | for a living man and a breathing hero; possible *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **escape** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | this wall of nets |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme through wall=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **weave** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | closely *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **be** |  | fish *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **spread** | participle | fish *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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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