---
title: They reared their heads high and looked at the hero, they licked out… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: They reared their heads high and looked at the hero, they licked out their tongues and threatened him. Who acts: reptiles. 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 98

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They reared their heads high and looked at the hero, they licked out their tongues and threatened him.

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**Who acts:** reptiles · **What happens:** rear, look, lick out, threaten · **To what, where:** heads, tongues, hero

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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 (reptiles), 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:pg66819:24:98
# text = They reared their heads high and looked at the hero, they licked out their tongues and threatened him.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	reared	rear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	hero	hero	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	licked	lick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
14	out	out	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	tongues	tongue	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	threatened	threaten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rear** | past | reptiles *= reptile* | reptiles's heads |  |  |  | high *property* | vn rear-26.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 2 | **look** | past | reptiles *= reptile* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the hero | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at hero=Theme |
| 3 | **lick out** | past | reptiles *= reptile* | reptiles's tongues |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent tongue=Source |
| 4 | **threaten** | past | reptiles *= reptile* *not said here* | hero |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |

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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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