---
title: The sea was calm; the waves were sleeping; the winds breathed very s… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: The sea was calm; the waves were sleeping; the winds breathed very softly on the sails of red and blue. Who acts: sea, waves, winds. 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 50

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The sea was calm; the waves were sleeping; the winds breathed very softly on the sails of red and blue.

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**Who acts:** sea, waves, winds · **What happens:** be, sleep, breathe · **To what, where:** sails

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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 (sea, waves, winds), 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:pg66819:18:50
# text = The sea was calm; the waves were sleeping; the winds breathed very softly on the sails of red and blue.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	calm	calm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	sleeping	sleep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	winds	wind	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	breathed	breathe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	very	very	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	sails	sail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	nmod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the sea |  |  |  |  | calm *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **sleep** | past · progressive | the waves |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **breathe** | past | the winds |  |  | the sails of red |  | softly *property* | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Agent on sail=Destination |

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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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