---
title: “I was here at the break of day, and not a minute have I been idle s… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “I was here at the break of day, and not a minute have I been idle since. Who acts: gallant Minstrel, minute. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Maid of the Morning, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Maid of the Morning, sentence 40

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“I was here at the break of day, and not a minute have I been idle since.

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**Who acts:** gallant Minstrel, minute · **What happens:** be, have, break · **To what, where:** break, day

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Maid of the Morning. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gallant Minstrel, minute), 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:pg66819:19:40
# text = “I was here at the break of day, and not a minute have I been idle since.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	break	break	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	minute	minute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	cop	_	_
18	idle	idle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	xcomp	_	_
19	since	since	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | past | the gallant Minstrel *= minstrel* |  |  | the break of day |  | here *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** *in a quote* | present | a minute |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | participle | the gallant Minstrel *= minstrel* |  |  |  |  | idle, since *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **break** *in a quote* |  |  | day |  |  |  |  | nom break «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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