---
title: He was not fighting the waves as she had supposed, but was clinging… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: He was not fighting the waves as she had supposed, but was clinging to the branches of a tree that had been uprooted and carried to sea. Who acts: cock. 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 e
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, Mistress and Minstrel, sentence 49

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He was not fighting the waves as she had supposed, but was clinging to the branches of a tree that had been uprooted and carried to sea.

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**Who acts:** cock · **What happens:** not fight, suppose, cling, uproot, carry · **To what, where:** waves, sun, tree, sea

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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 (cock), 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:pg66819:2:49
# text = He was not fighting the waves as she had supposed, but was clinging to the branches of a tree that had been uprooted and carried to sea.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	fighting	fight	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	supposed	suppose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	clinging	cling	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
21	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	obj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	uprooted	uproot	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl:relcl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	carried	carry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	conj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **fight** | past · progressive | cock | the waves |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wave=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **suppose** | past · perfect · passive |  | sun |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Attribute |
| 3 | **cling** | past · progressive | cock *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the branches of a tree | vn cling-22.5 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme to branch=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **uproot** | past · perfect · passive |  | a tree |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: that=Theme |
| 5 | **carry** | participle |  |  |  | sea |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent to sea=Destination |

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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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