---
title: The trees swayed back and forth as though rocked by the fiercest of… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: The trees swayed back and forth as though rocked by the fiercest of storms, yet there was silence everywhere. Who acts: trees, silence. 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 50

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The trees swayed back and forth as though rocked by the fiercest of storms, yet there was silence everywhere.

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**Who acts:** trees, silence · **What happens:** sway, rock, be

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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 (trees, silence), 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:pg66819:15:50
# text = The trees swayed back and forth as though rocked by the fiercest of storms, yet there was silence everywhere.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	swayed	sway	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	back	back	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	4	conj	_	_
7	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	though	though	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	rocked	rock	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	fiercest	fierce	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	storms	storm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
18	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
20	everywhere	everywhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sway** | past | the trees |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **rock** | participle | the trees *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by the fiercest of storms; though *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by fierce=Location |
| 3 | **be** | past | silence |  |  | there |  | everywhere *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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