---
title: They kept a fine bird dog always tethered at the stern, and three or… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: They kept a fine bird dog always tethered at the stern, and three or four puppy dogs ran whining about the deck. Who acts: bows, three puppy dogs. 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
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Maid of the Morning, sentence 74

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They kept a fine bird dog always tethered at the stern, and three or four puppy dogs ran whining about the deck.

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**Who acts:** bows, three puppy dogs · **What happens:** keep, tether, run, whine · **To what, where:** fine bird dog, stern

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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 (bows, three puppy dogs), 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:pg66819:19:74
# text = They kept a fine bird dog always tethered at the stern, and three or four puppy dogs ran whining about the deck.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
7	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	8	advmod	_	_
8	tethered	tether	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	stern	stern	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
14	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	conj	_	_
17	puppy	puppy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
20	whining	whine	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	xcomp	_	_
21	about	about	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	deck	deck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | past | bows *= bow* | a fine bird dog |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=Theme |
| 2 | **tether** | participle |  | a fine bird dog *not said here* |  | the stern |  | always *property* | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **run** | past | three puppy dogs |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **whine** | gerund | three puppy dogs *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the deck | vn complain-37.8 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about deck=Topic |

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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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