---
title: “But I will perform it; I will plough the field of serpents, and no… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “But I will perform it; I will plough the field of serpents, and no man nor maiden shall call me a coward.” Who acts: Ilmarinen, man. 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 60

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“But I will perform it; I will plough the field of serpents, and no man nor maiden shall call me a coward.”

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**Who acts:** Ilmarinen, man · **What happens:** perform, plough, call · **To what, where:** courage, field, Ilmarinen · **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 (Ilmarinen, man), 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:pg66819:24:60
# text = “But I will perform it; I will plough the field of serpents, and no man nor maiden shall call me a coward.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	perform	perform	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	plough	plough	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	serpents	serpent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	18	det	_	_
18	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
19	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	20	cc	_	_
20	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
21	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
23	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	coward	coward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **perform** *in a quote* | future | Ilmarinen | courage |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 2 | **plough** *in a quote* | future | Ilmarinen | the field of serpents |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_instr-10.4.2 «NP V NP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent field=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **call** *in a quote* | shall | no man nor maiden |  | Ilmarinen |  |  | a coward *xcomp* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |

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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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