---
title: Very earnestly did the Minstrel sing, and gradually his tones became… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Very earnestly did the Minstrel sing, and gradually his tones became sweeter and lower and more persuasive, like the murmuring of the waters on a peaceful summer morning. Who acts: tones, Minstrel. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Launching, with its de
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Launching, sentence 33

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Very earnestly did the Minstrel sing, and gradually his tones became sweeter and lower and more persuasive, like the murmuring of the waters on a peaceful summer morning.

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**Who acts:** tones, Minstrel · **What happens:** do, become, intonate, murmur · **To what, where:** Minstrel sing, waters

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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 (tones, Minstrel), 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:pg66819:18:33
# text = Very earnestly did the Minstrel sing, and gradually his tones became sweeter and lower and more persuasive, like the murmuring of the waters on a peaceful summer morning.
1	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	earnestly	earnestly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	sing	sing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	gradually	gradually	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	tones	tone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	sweeter	sweet	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	12	xcomp	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	lower	low	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	conj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	18	advmod	_	_
18	persuasive	persuasive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	murmuring	murmuring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	peaceful	peaceful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
29	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past |  | the Minstrel sing |  |  |  | earnestly *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sing=Eventuality |
| 2 | **become** | past | Minstrel's tones |  |  |  |  | like the murmuring of the waters on a peaceful summer morning; gradually, sweet *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **intonate** |  | Minstrel |  |  |  |  |  | nom tone «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 4 | **murmur** |  |  | the waters on a peaceful summer morning |  |  |  |  | nom murmuring «event 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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