---
title: Suddenly he heard light footsteps behind him, suddenly the darkness… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Suddenly he heard light footsteps behind him, suddenly the darkness was dispelled and the smiling Maid of Beauty laid her hand upon his shoulder. Who acts: pike, smiling Maid. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Great Pike, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Great Pike, sentence 45

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Suddenly he heard light footsteps behind him, suddenly the darkness was dispelled and the smiling Maid of Beauty laid her hand upon his shoulder.

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**Who acts:** pike, smiling Maid · **What happens:** hear, dispel, smile, lay · **To what, where:** light footsteps, darkness, hand, shoulder

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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 (pike, smiling Maid), 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:pg66819:25:45
# text = Suddenly he heard light footsteps behind him, suddenly the darkness was dispelled and the smiling Maid of Beauty laid her hand upon his shoulder.
1	Suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	light	light	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	footsteps	footstep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	dispelled	dispel	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	smiling	smile	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	amod	_	_
17	Maid	Maid	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	Beauty	Beauty	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
20	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
21	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	shoulder	shoulder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | pike | light footsteps |  |  |  | behind Mistress; suddenly *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer footstep=Stimulus |
| 2 | **dispel** | past · passive |  | the darkness |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **smile** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **lay** | past | the smiling Maid of Beauty | Maid's hand |  | pike's shoulder |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent hand=Theme upon shoulder=Destination |

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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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