---
title: Merrily did the birchwood runners whistle as they glided over the ha… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Merrily did the birchwood runners whistle as they glided over the half-frozen earth. Who acts: birchwood runners, runners. 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 168

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Merrily did the birchwood runners whistle as they glided over the half-frozen earth.

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**Who acts:** birchwood runners, runners · **What happens:** whistle, glide, freeze · **To what, where:** frozen earth

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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 (birchwood runners, runners), 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:pg66819:2:168
# text = Merrily did the birchwood runners whistle as they glided over the half-frozen earth.
1	Merrily	merrily	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	birchwood	birchwood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	runners	runner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	whistle	whistle	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	glided	glide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
10	over	over	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
12	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	frozen	freeze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	amod	_	_
15	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **whistle** | past · do-support | the birchwood runners |  |  |  |  | merrily *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **glide** | past | runners *= runner* |  |  | the frozen earth |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over earth=Trajectory |
| 3 | **freeze** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | half *compound* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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