---
title: On the broad face of the sea he discerned a strange speck, white, ye… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: On the broad face of the sea he discerned a strange speck, white, yellow, and scarlet, gliding swiftly landward, glistening bright on the blue and silent water. 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 t
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Barking Dogs, sentence 83

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On the broad face of the sea he discerned a strange speck, white, yellow, and scarlet, gliding swiftly landward, glistening bright on the blue and silent water.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** discern, glide, glisten · **To what, where:** strange speck, broad face, blue water

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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:pg66819:22:83
# text = On the broad face of the sea he discerned a strange speck, white, yellow, and scarlet, gliding swiftly landward, glistening bright on the blue and silent water.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	broad	broad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	discerned	discern	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	speck	speck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	scarlet	scarlet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	gliding	glide	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
22	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	landward	landward	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	glistening	glisten	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	conj	_	_
26	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
29	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	conj	_	_
32	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **discern** | past | man | a strange speck |  | the broad face of the sea |  | scarlet *obl* | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer speck=Stimulus |
| 2 | **glide** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | landward *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **glisten** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  | the blue water |  | bright *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on water=Location |

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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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