---
title: The serpents were lifted from their holes, they were torn in pieces,… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: The serpents were lifted from their holes, they were torn in pieces, they were buried deep in the ground. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Field of Serpents, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Field of Serpents, sentence 107

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The serpents were lifted from their holes, they were torn in pieces, they were buried deep in the ground.

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**What happens:** lift, tear, bury · **To what, where:** serpents, holes, pieces, ground

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Field of Serpents. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg66819:24:107
# text = The serpents were lifted from their holes, they were torn in pieces, they were buried deep in the ground.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	serpents	serpent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	lifted	lift	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	holes	hole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	torn	tear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	buried	bury	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
18	deep	deep	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lift** | past · passive |  | the serpents |  | serpents's holes |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme from hole=Destination |
| 2 | **tear** | past · passive |  | serpents *= serpent* |  | pieces |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **bury** | past · passive |  | serpents *= serpent* |  | the ground |  | deep *property* | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in ground=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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