---
title: They tell us that these strangers are better than friends, that they… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: They tell us that these strangers are better than friends, that they are suitors and have come hither as wooers.” Who acts: drops, strangers, suitors. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Barking Dogs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Barking Dogs, sentence 137

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They tell us that these strangers are better than friends, that they are suitors and have come hither as wooers.”

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**Who acts:** drops, strangers, suitors · **What happens:** tell, be, come · **To what, where:** us, suitors · **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, The Barking Dogs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (drops, strangers, suitors), 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:pg66819:22:137
# text = They tell us that these strangers are better than friends, that they are suitors and have come hither as wooers.”
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	strangers	stranger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	ccomp	_	_
9	than	than	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	suitors	suitor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
19	hither	hither	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	wooers	wooer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | drops *= drop* |  | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent we=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** | present | this strangers |  |  |  |  | than friends; good *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | present | drops *= drop* | suitors |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **come** | present · perfect | suitors |  |  |  |  | as wooers; hither *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: 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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