---
title: But the meshes were fine; the nets were laid close together; there s… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: But the meshes were fine; the nets were laid close together; there seemed to be no way of escape. Who acts: meshes. 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 63

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But the meshes were fine; the nets were laid close together; there seemed to be no way of escape.

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**Who acts:** meshes · **What happens:** be, lay, seem · **To what, where:** nets, way

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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 (meshes), 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:pg66819:15:63
# text = But the meshes were fine; the nets were laid close together; there seemed to be no way of escape.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	meshes	mesh	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	nets	net	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
11	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	_
12	together	together	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	15	expl	_	_
15	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
19	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	xcomp	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	escape	escape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the meshes |  |  |  |  | fine *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **lay** | past · passive |  | the nets |  |  |  | close, together *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Result |
| 3 | **seem** | past |  |  |  | there |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | no way |  |  |  | of escape | tree rules |

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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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