---
title: Six fathoms long were his horns; and his back was a highway where sq… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Six fathoms long were his horns; and his back was a highway where squirrels frisked and birds built their nests as in the branches of a tree. Who acts: Six fathoms, back, squirrels, birds. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Wedding Feast, with its depende
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Wedding Feast, sentence 15

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Six fathoms long were his horns; and his back was a highway where squirrels frisked and birds built their nests as in the branches of a tree.

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**Who acts:** Six fathoms, back, squirrels, birds · **What happens:** be, frisk, build · **To what, where:** horns, highway, nests

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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 (Six fathoms, back, squirrels, birds), 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:pg66819:27:15
# text = Six fathoms long were his horns; and his back was a highway where squirrels frisked and birds built their nests as in the branches of a tree.
1	Six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	fathoms	fathom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	horns	horn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	highway	highway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
14	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	16	advmod	_	_
15	squirrels	squirrel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	frisked	frisk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	built	build	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	nests	nest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
22	as	as	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Six fathoms | bull's horns and a highway |  |  |  | bull *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past | bull's back | a highway |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **frisk** | past | squirrels |  |  |  |  |  | vn investigate-35.4 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **build** | past | birds | birds's nests |  |  |  | as the branches of a tree | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nest=Product |

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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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