---
title: He could answer them not a word, so feeble had he become; his eyes g… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: He could answer them not a word, so feeble had he become; his eyes grew suddenly dim, and he fainted away in their arms. Who acts: stranger, eyes. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Hero’s Return, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Hero’s Return, sentence 22

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He could answer them not a word, so feeble had he become; his eyes grew suddenly dim, and he fainted away in their arms.

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**Who acts:** stranger, eyes · **What happens:** not answer, become, grow, faint away · **To what, where:** word, Friend, arms

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Hero’s Return. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stranger, eyes), 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:pg66819:16:22
# text = He could answer them not a word, so feeble had he become; his eyes grew suddenly dim, and he fainted away in their arms.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	feeble	feeble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	xcomp	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
18	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	dim	dim	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	fainted	faint	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
24	away	away	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **answer** *speech: assert* | could | stranger | a word | Friend |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality |
| 2 | **become** | past · perfect | stranger |  |  |  |  | feeble *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **grow** | past | stranger's eyes |  |  |  |  | dim *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **faint away** | past | stranger |  |  | Friend's arms |  | away *property* | vn change\_bodily\_state-40.8.4 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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