---
title: The grim old Mistress grew grimmer still as she answered him: “When… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: The grim old Mistress grew grimmer still as she answered him: “When wilful maidens choose ’tis folly for mothers to refuse. Who acts: grim old Mistress, Mistress, wilful maidens. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Field of Serpents, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Field of Serpents, sentence 19

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The grim old Mistress grew grimmer still as she answered him: “When wilful maidens choose ’tis folly for mothers to refuse.

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**Who acts:** grim old Mistress, Mistress, wilful maidens · **What happens:** grow, answer, choose, refuse · **To what, where:** desire, tis folly · **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 Field of Serpents. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (grim old Mistress, Mistress, wilful maidens), 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:pg66819:24:19
# text = The grim old Mistress grew grimmer still as she answered him: “When wilful maidens choose ’tis folly for mothers to refuse.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	grim	grim	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	Mistress	mistress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	grimmer	grim	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	xcomp	_	_
7	still	still	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
15	wilful	wilful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	maidens	maiden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	choose	choose	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
18	’	'	SYM	SYM	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	tis	tis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	folly	folly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	mothers	mother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	refuse	refuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | the grim old Mistress |  |  |  | still | grim *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Mistress |  | desire |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality |
| 3 | **choose** *in a quote* | present | wilful maidens | tis folly |  |  |  | for mothers | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent folly=Theme for mother=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **refuse** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | wilful maidens *not said here* | tis folly *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: 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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