---
title: It was as if the waves were calling gently, ever so gently, to the l… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: It was as if the waves were calling gently, ever so gently, to the little vessel waiting on the shore: Who acts: song, little vessel. 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 35

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It was as if the waves were calling gently, ever so gently, to the little vessel waiting on the shore:

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**Who acts:** song, little vessel · **What happens:** call, wait · **To what, where:** little vessel, shore · **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 Launching. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (song, little vessel), 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:pg66819:18:35
# text = It was as if the waves were calling gently, ever so gently, to the little vessel waiting on the shore:
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	calling	call	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
9	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	13	advmod	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
19	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	acl	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | past · progressive | song |  | the little vessel |  | ever | the waves *nsubj*; gently *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to vessel=Recipient |
| 2 | **wait** | gerund | the little vessel *not said here* |  |  | the shore |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on shore=Location |

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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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