---
title: From the graybeard it is only a step, a stone’s throw, a short walk… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: From the graybeard it is only a step, a stone’s throw, a short walk at most; from the babe upon the floor it may be a thousand weary leagues removed. Who acts: journey, stone. 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 73

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From the graybeard it is only a step, a stone’s throw, a short walk at most; from the babe upon the floor it may be a thousand weary leagues removed.

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**Who acts:** journey, stone · **What happens:** be, remove, throw · **To what, where:** step, graybeard, thousand weary leagues

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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 (journey, stone), 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:pg66819:25:73
# text = From the graybeard it is only a step, a stone’s throw, a short walk at most; from the babe upon the floor it may be a thousand weary leagues removed.
1	From	from	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	graybeard	graybeard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’s	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	_
13	throw	throw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	walk	walk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	babe	babe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
24	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
28	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
29	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	cop	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nummod	_	_
32	weary	weary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	leagues	league	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
34	removed	remove	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | journey | a step and a stone's throw  a short walk at most and the babe upon the floor |  | the graybeard |  | a stone's throw  a short walk at most *conj*; the babe upon the floor *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | may | journey | thousand weary leagues |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **remove** | participle |  | thousand weary leagues *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **throw** |  | a stone |  |  |  |  |  | nom throw «act transitive»: poss=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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