---
title: “The Sampo,” she said, “is the mill of fortune which wise men, since… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “The Sampo,” she said, “is the mill of fortune which wise men, since the beginning of things, have sought to invent. Who acts: Sampo. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, Mistress and Minstrel, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, Mistress and Minstrel, sentence 121

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“The Sampo,” she said, “is the mill of fortune which wise men, since the beginning of things, have sought to invent.

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**Who acts:** Sampo · **What happens:** say, be, seek, invent · **To what, where:** mill, wise men · **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, Mistress and Minstrel. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sampo), 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:pg66819:2:121
# text = “The Sampo,” she said, “is the mill of fortune which wise men, since the beginning of things, have sought to invent.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Sampo	Sampo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	ccomp	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	fortune	fortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	obj	_	_
16	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	since	since	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
25	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	sought	seek	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	invent	invent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Sampo |  |  |  |  | Mistress *nsubj* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the mill |  |  |  | of fortune | tree rules |
| 3 | **seek** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | wise men |  |  | the beginning | the mill *obj*; things *nsubj:pass* | tree rules |
| 4 | **invent** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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