---
title: They came by twos and threes—men, women, and children—and each one b… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: They came by twos and threes—men, women, and children—and each one brought him some gift to cheer him in his illness. Who acts: neighbor, one. 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 clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Hero’s Return, sentence 31

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They came by twos and threes—men, women, and children—and each one brought him some gift to cheer him in his illness.

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**Who acts:** neighbor, one · **What happens:** come, bring, cheer · **To what, where:** gift, stranger, illness

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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 (neighbor, one), 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:pg66819:16:31
# text = They came by twos and threes—men, women, and children—and each one brought him some gift to cheer him in his illness.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	by	by	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	twos	two	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	threes	three	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	det	_	_
17	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	det	_	_
21	gift	gift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	cheer	cheer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	illness	illness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | neighbor |  |  |  |  | by twos and threes | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by two=Location |
| 2 | **bring** | past | each one | some gift | stranger |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent he=Destination gift=Theme |
| 3 | **cheer** | to-infinitive | each one *not said here* | stranger |  | stranger's illness |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=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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