---
title: The cuckoos twittered, the bluebirds sang merrily, and the birchwood… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: The cuckoos twittered, the bluebirds sang merrily, and the birchwood runners of the enchanted sledge whizzed over the sand and then glided through the new-fallen snow. Who acts: cuckoos, bluebirds, birchwood runners. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Fri
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/21/50/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old No…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/) / [The Friendly Rivals](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/21/) / 50

# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Friendly Rivals, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The cuckoos twittered, the bluebirds sang merrily, and the birchwood runners of the enchanted sledge whizzed over the sand and then glided through the new-fallen snow.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** cuckoos, bluebirds, birchwood runners · **What happens:** twitter, sing, enchant, whiz, glide, fall · **To what, where:** sand, fallen snow

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Friendly Rivals. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cuckoos, bluebirds, birchwood runners), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66819:21:50
# text = The cuckoos twittered, the bluebirds sang merrily, and the birchwood runners of the enchanted sledge whizzed over the sand and then glided through the new-fallen snow.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cuckoos	cuckoo	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	twittered	twitter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	bluebirds	bluebird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	merrily	merrily	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	birchwood	birchwood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	runners	runner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	enchanted	enchant	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	amod	_	_
17	sledge	sledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
18	whizzed	whiz	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	over	over	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
24	glided	glide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
25	through	through	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
27	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	fallen	fall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	amod	_	_
30	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **twitter** | past | the cuckoos |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | the bluebirds |  |  |  |  | merrily *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **enchant** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **whiz** | past | the birchwood runners of the enchanted sledge |  |  | the sand |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over sand=Trajectory |
| 5 | **glide** | past | the birchwood runners of the enchanted sledge *not said here* |  |  | the fallen snow | then |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through snow=Trajectory |
| 6 | **fall** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/21/49/)
- next →: [sentence 51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/21/51/)
- ↑ back to [The Friendly Rivals](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/21/)