---
title: By the smouldering fire in his own small hut the head serving-man wa… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: By the smouldering fire in his own small hut the head serving-man was sitting; his eldest son was working beside the door. Who acts: head serving man, eldest son. 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
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Barking Dogs, sentence 43

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By the smouldering fire in his own small hut the head serving-man was sitting; his eldest son was working beside the door.

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**Who acts:** head serving man, eldest son · **What happens:** sit, work · **To what, where:** own small hut, door

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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 (head serving man, eldest son), 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:pg66819:22:43
# text = By the smouldering fire in his own small hut the head serving-man was sitting; his eldest son was working beside the door.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	smouldering	smouldering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
7	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
8	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	hut	hut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
11	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
12	serving	serving	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	20	amod	_	_
20	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	working	work	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
23	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | the head serving man | clamor's own small hut *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location hut=Theme |
| 2 | **work** | past · progressive | clamor's eldest son |  |  | the door |  | by the smouldering fire in clamor's own small hut | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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