---
title: “He speaks in riddles,” answered Wainamoinen, “yet he speaks wisdom… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “He speaks in riddles,” answered Wainamoinen, “yet he speaks wisdom and truth. Who acts: child, Wainamoinen. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Bridegroom’s Triumph, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Bridegroom’s Triumph, sentence 23

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“He speaks in riddles,” answered Wainamoinen, “yet he speaks wisdom and truth.

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**Who acts:** child, Wainamoinen · **What happens:** speak, answer · **To what, where:** riddles, wisdom · **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 (child, Wainamoinen), 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:pg66819:26:23
# text = “He speaks in riddles,” answered Wainamoinen, “yet he speaks wisdom and truth.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	speaks	speak	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	riddles	riddle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	Wainamoinen	Wainamoinen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	speaks	speak	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
15	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present | child |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Wainamoinen |  |  | riddles |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present | child | wisdom and truth |  |  | yet |  | tree rules |

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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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