---
title: “In my lifetime I have heard much barking,” he said, “but never such… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “In my lifetime I have heard much barking,” he said, “but never such barking as this. Who acts: man. 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 clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Barking Dogs, sentence 55

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“In my lifetime I have heard much barking,” he said, “but never such barking as this.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** hear, bark, say, not bark · **To what, where:** lifetime · **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 (man), 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:pg66819:22:55
# text = “In my lifetime I have heard much barking,” he said, “but never such barking as this.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	lifetime	lifetime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	much	much	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	barking	bark	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
18	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	barking	bark	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	ccomp	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** *in a quote* | present · perfect | man | my lifetime *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer lifetime=Stimulus |
| 2 | **bark** *in a quote* | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  | my lifetime |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **bark** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | as this | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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