---
title: A stupendous ox he was, larger by far than any that grows in our deg… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: A stupendous ox he was, larger by far than any that grows in our degenerate times. Who acts: stupendous ox, any. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Wedding Feast, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Wedding Feast, sentence 14

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A stupendous ox he was, larger by far than any that grows in our degenerate times.

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**Who acts:** stupendous ox, any · **What happens:** be, grow

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Wedding Feast. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stupendous ox, any), 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:pg66819:27:14
# text = A stupendous ox he was, larger by far than any that grows in our degenerate times.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	stupendous	stupendous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	ox	ox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	larger	large	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	obl	_	_
10	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	13	nsubj	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	grows	grow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	degenerate	degenerate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | a stupendous ox |  |  |  |  | bull *nsubj*; large *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **grow** | present | any |  |  |  | time | that *nsubj* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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