---
title: Surely, the task which he performed was hard, but if he succeeded wh… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Surely, the task which he performed was hard, but if he succeeded why may not another hero do likewise?” Who acts: task, Piru, hero. 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 40

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Surely, the task which he performed was hard, but if he succeeded why may not another hero do likewise?”

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**Who acts:** task, Piru, hero · **What happens:** perform, be, succeed, not do

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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 (task, Piru, hero), 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:pg66819:24:40
# text = Surely, the task which he performed was hard, but if he succeeded why may not another hero do likewise?”
1	Surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	performed	perform	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	succeeded	succeed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
15	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
16	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
18	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
19	hero	hero	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
21	likewise	likewise	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **perform** | past | the task |  |  |  |  | Piru *nsubj* | vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | the task |  |  |  |  | hard, surely *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **succeed** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | Piru |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **do** | may | another hero |  |  |  |  | likewise *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: 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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