---
title: “My friends,” then answered the Minstrel, “I have been to the land o… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “My friends,” then answered the Minstrel, “I have been to the land of Tuonela. Who acts: friends. 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 39

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“My friends,” then answered the Minstrel, “I have been to the land of Tuonela.

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**Who acts:** friends · **What happens:** answer, be · **To what, where:** Minstrel · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (friends), 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:pg66819:16:39
# text = “My friends,” then answered the Minstrel, “I have been to the land of Tuonela.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
7	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
14	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	cop	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	appos	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	Tuonela	Tuonela	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | My friends |  | the Minstrel |  | then |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent minstrel=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present · perfect | My friends *= friend* |  |  |  |  | to the land; of Tuonela | 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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