---
title: Then the deck was covered with plates of shining silver ornamented w… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the deck was covered with plates of shining silver ornamented with figures of birds and beasts and little fishes. Who acts: plates. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Launching, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Launching, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then the deck was covered with plates of shining silver ornamented with figures of birds and beasts and little fishes.

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**Who acts:** plates · **What happens:** cover, shine, ornament, figure · **To what, where:** deck, silver, birds

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Launching. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (plates), 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:pg66819:18:29
# text = Then the deck was covered with plates of shining silver ornamented with figures of birds and beasts and little fishes.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	deck	deck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	plates	plate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
8	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	shining	shine	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	acl	_	_
10	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	ornamented	ornament	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	figures	figure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	fishes	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cover** | past · passive |  | the deck |  |  | then | with plates | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Destination with plate=Theme |
| 2 | **shine** | gerund | plates *not said here* | silver |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent silver=Theme |
| 3 | **ornament** | participle |  | silver *not said here* |  |  |  | with figures of birds and beasts and little fishes | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with figure=Theme |
| 4 | **figure** |  |  | birds and beasts and little fishes |  |  |  |  | nom figure «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .note -->
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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