---
title: She scrubbed the birchwood tables till they were as white and gliste… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: She scrubbed the birchwood tables till they were as white and glistening as the frost-covered meadows. Who acts: Maid, tables. 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 23

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She scrubbed the birchwood tables till they were as white and glistening as the frost-covered meadows.

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**Who acts:** Maid, tables · **What happens:** scrub, be, glisten, cover · **To what, where:** birchwood tables

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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 (Maid, tables), 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:pg66819:2:23
# text = She scrubbed the birchwood tables till they were as white and glistening as the frost-covered meadows.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	scrubbed	scrub	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	birchwood	birchwood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	tables	table	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
6	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	glistening	glisten	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
15	frost	frost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	amod	_	_
18	meadows	meadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scrub** | past | Maid | the birchwood tables |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent table=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | tables *= table* |  |  |  |  | white *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **glisten** | gerund | tables *= table* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as the covered meadows | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **cover** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | frost *compound* | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |

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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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