---
title: She seized the fearful sprite by the head; with her iron talons she… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: She seized the fearful sprite by the head; with her iron talons she twisted the creature’s neck and forced it to hide again in the slimy, pitch-like ooze in the bed of the murky stream. Who acts: eagle, sprite. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Great Pik
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Great Pike, sentence 81

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She seized the fearful sprite by the head; with her iron talons she twisted the creature’s neck and forced it to hide again in the slimy, pitch-like ooze in the bed of the murky stream.

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**Who acts:** eagle, sprite · **What happens:** seize, twist, force, hide · **To what, where:** fearful sprite, neck, sprite, slimy like ooze

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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 (eagle, sprite), 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:pg66819:25:81
# text = She seized the fearful sprite by the head; with her iron talons she twisted the creature’s neck and forced it to hide again in the slimy, pitch-like ooze in the bed of the murky stream.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	fearful	fearful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	sprite	sprite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	talons	talon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	twisted	twist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’s	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	forced	force	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	hide	hide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
25	again	again	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
28	slimy	slimy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
30	pitch	pitch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	like	like	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	ooze	ooze	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	murky	murky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past | eagle | the fearful sprite |  |  |  | by the head | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sprite=Theme |
| 2 | **twist** | past | eagle | the creature's neck |  |  |  | with eagle's iron talons | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent neck=Theme |
| 3 | **force** | past | eagle *not said here* | sprite |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent it=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **hide** | to-infinitive | sprite *not said here* |  |  | the slimy like ooze in the bed of the murky stream | again |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in ooze=Location |

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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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