---
title: “The footpath to his kingdom is a magic highway,” said the earth man. — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “The footpath to his kingdom is a magic highway,” said the earth man. Who acts: footpath, magic highway. 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 27

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“The footpath to his kingdom is a magic highway,” said the earth man.

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**Who acts:** footpath, magic highway · **What happens:** be, say · **To what, where:** magic highway · **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 (footpath, magic highway), 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:pg66819:17:27
# text = “The footpath to his kingdom is a magic highway,” said the earth man.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	footpath	footpath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	highway	highway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the footpath to man's kingdom | a magic highway |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a magic highway |  |  |  |  | the earth man *nsubj* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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