---
title: On his head was the cap of his ancestors, and around his waist a gol… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: On his head was the cap of his ancestors, and around his waist a golden girdle was buckled. 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 4

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On his head was the cap of his ancestors, and around his waist a golden girdle was buckled.

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**What happens:** be, buckle · **To what, where:** cap, head, golden girdle, waist

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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:pg66819:24:4
# text = On his head was the cap of his ancestors, and around his waist a golden girdle was buckled.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cap	cap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	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	ancestors	ancestor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
12	around	around	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	waist	waist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	girdle	girdle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	buckled	buckle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the cap |  | hero's head |  | of hero's ancestors | tree rules |
| 2 | **buckle** | past · passive |  | a golden girdle |  | hero's waist |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

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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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