---
title: Gently, smoothly, like a mother swan swimming among her cygnets in s… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Gently, smoothly, like a mother swan swimming among her cygnets in some sheltered cove, the vessel glided into the quiet inlet. Who acts: mother swan, vessel. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Old Man’s Wooing, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Old Man’s Wooing, sentence 50

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Gently, smoothly, like a mother swan swimming among her cygnets in some sheltered cove, the vessel glided into the quiet inlet.

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**Who acts:** mother swan, vessel · **What happens:** swim, shelter, glide · **To what, where:** cygnets, quiet inlet

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Old Man’s Wooing. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother swan, vessel), 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:pg66819:23:50
# text = Gently, smoothly, like a mother swan swimming among her cygnets in some sheltered cove, the vessel glided into the quiet inlet.
1	Gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	smoothly	smoothly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	like	like	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	swan	swan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
9	swimming	swim	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	among	among	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	cygnets	cygnet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
15	sheltered	shelter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	amod	_	_
16	cove	cove	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	glided	glide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	into	into	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	inlet	inlet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swim** | gerund | a mother swan *not said here* |  |  | girl's cygnets in some sheltered cove |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme among cygnet=Trajectory |
| 2 | **shelter** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **glide** | past | the vessel |  |  | the quiet inlet |  | like a mother swan; smoothly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into inlet=Destination |

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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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