---
title: He pointed with his right hand towards the forest and the blue hills… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: He pointed with his right hand towards the forest and the blue hills beyond it, and spoke in low, half-whispered tones as if revealing a forbidden secret: Who acts: man. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Wisdom Keeper, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Wisdom Keeper, sentence 20

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He pointed with his right hand towards the forest and the blue hills beyond it, and spoke in low, half-whispered tones as if revealing a forbidden secret:

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** point, speak, whisper, reveal · **To what, where:** low whispered tones, forbidden secret · **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 (man), 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:pg66819:17:20
# text = He pointed with his right hand towards the forest and the blue hills beyond it, and spoke in low, half-whispered tones as if revealing a forbidden secret:
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	pointed	point	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	hills	hill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	_
14	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
20	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
22	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	24	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	amod	_	_
25	tones	tone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
28	revealing	reveal	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	forbidden	forbidden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **point** | past | man |  |  |  |  | with man's right hand; towards the forest and the blue hills beyond hand | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent towards forest=Recipient |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | past |  |  |  | low whispered tones |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | participle |  |  |  |  |  | half *compound* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **reveal** | gerund |  | a forbidden secret |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent secret=Topic |

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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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