---
title: Then suddenly up spoke a little child who was sitting on the floor—a… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Then suddenly up spoke a little child who was sitting on the floor—a little child too young to walk, too small to know the meaning of his words: Who acts: little child, child. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Bridegroom’s Triumph, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Bridegroom’s Triumph, sentence 10

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Then suddenly up spoke a little child who was sitting on the floor—a little child too young to walk, too small to know the meaning of his words:

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**Who acts:** little child, child · **What happens:** speak, sit, walk, know, mean, word · **To what, where:** little child, floor, meaning, words · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Bridegroom’s Triumph. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little child, child), 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:pg66819:26:10
# text = Then suddenly up spoke a little child who was sitting on the floor—a little child too young to walk, too small to know the meaning of his words:
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	up	up	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
18	too	too	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	too	too	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	meaning	meaning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past |  | a little child |  |  | then | a little child *obl* | tree rules |
| 2 | **sit** | past · progressive | a little child |  |  | the floor |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on floor=Location |
| 3 | **walk** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **know** | to-infinitive |  | the meaning of child's words |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer meaning=Stimulus |
| 5 | **mean** |  |  | child's words |  |  |  |  | nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 6 | **word** |  | child |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=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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