---
title: Vainly have I lived, vain have been all my valiant deeds, vain indee… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Vainly have I lived, vain have been all my valiant deeds, vain indeed is life with all its empty victories; there is naught that is worth the doing.” Who acts: I, naught. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Great Pike, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Great Pike, sentence 44

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Vainly have I lived, vain have been all my valiant deeds, vain indeed is life with all its empty victories; there is naught that is worth the doing.”

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**Who acts:** I, naught · **What happens:** have, live, be, do · **To what, where:** valiant deeds, vain life

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Great Pike. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, naught), 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:pg66819:25:44
# text = Vainly have I lived, vain have been all my valiant deeds, vain indeed is life with all its empty victories; there is naught that is worth the doing.”
1	Vainly	vainly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
7	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	cop	_	_
9	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	12	det:predet	_	_
10	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	valiant	valiant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	deeds	deed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
15	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	22	det:predet	_	_
20	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	victories	victory	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	25	expl	_	_
25	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
26	naught	naught	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	25	nsubj	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
28	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	doing	do	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present |  |  |  |  |  | vain, vainly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **live** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | participle |  | my valiant deeds |  |  |  | my *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** | present |  | vain life |  |  |  | with life's empty victories | tree rules |
| 6 | **be** | present | naught |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | worth *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **do** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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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