---
title: The black watchdog was still tugging at his chain, still howling dol… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: The black watchdog was still tugging at his chain, still howling dolorously. Who acts: black watchdog. 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 72

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The black watchdog was still tugging at his chain, still howling dolorously.

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**Who acts:** black watchdog · **What happens:** tug, howl

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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 (black watchdog), 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:pg66819:22:72
# text = The black watchdog was still tugging at his chain, still howling dolorously.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	watchdog	watchdog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	still	still	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	tugging	tug	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	chain	chain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	still	still	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	howling	howl	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
13	dolorously	dolorously	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tug** | past · progressive | the black watchdog |  |  |  | still | at papa's chain | vn push-12-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent at chain=Theme |
| 2 | **howl** | gerund | the black watchdog *not said here* |  |  |  | still | dolorously *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «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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