---
title: “O friend and gentle helper,” answered Wainamoinen, “I grieve for th… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “O friend and gentle helper,” answered Wainamoinen, “I grieve for the lack of three words with which to finish my magic vessel. Who acts: friend. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Wisdom Keeper, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Wisdom Keeper, sentence 16

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“O friend and gentle helper,” answered Wainamoinen, “I grieve for the lack of three words with which to finish my magic vessel.

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**Who acts:** friend · **What happens:** answer, grieve, finish, lack · **To what, where:** Wainamoinen, magic vessel, three words · **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 Wisdom Keeper. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (friend), 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:pg66819:17:16
# text = “O friend and gentle helper,” answered Wainamoinen, “I grieve for the lack of three words with which to finish my magic vessel.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	3	discourse	_	_
3	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	gentle	gentle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	helper	helper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
9	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	Wainamoinen	Wainamoinen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	grieve	grieve	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	lack	lack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	obl	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	finish	finish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	acl:relcl	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	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 | friend and gentle helper |  | Wainamoinen |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent wainamoinen=Eventuality |
| 2 | **grieve** *in a quote* | present | friend and gentle helper *= friend* |  |  |  |  | for the lack of three words | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **finish** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | friend and gentle helper *= friend* *not said here* | my magic vessel |  |  |  | with three words | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality PP.subeventuality»: agent=Affector vessel=Eventuality with which=Subeventuality |
| 4 | **lack** *in a quote* |  |  | three words |  |  |  |  | nom lack «state transitive»: of=patient |

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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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