---
title: The magic sledge scarcely touched the ground, its birchwood runners… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: The magic sledge scarcely touched the ground, its birchwood runners seemed to skim through the air, so rapid was its motion. Who acts: magic sledge, birchwood runners, rapid. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Home Coming, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Home Coming, sentence 27

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The magic sledge scarcely touched the ground, its birchwood runners seemed to skim through the air, so rapid was its motion.

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**Who acts:** magic sledge, birchwood runners, rapid · **What happens:** touch, seem, skim, be · **To what, where:** ground, air, motion

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Home Coming. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (magic sledge, birchwood runners, rapid), 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:pg66819:28:27
# text = The magic sledge scarcely touched the ground, its birchwood runners seemed to skim through the air, so rapid was its motion.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	sledge	sledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	birchwood	birchwood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	runners	runner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	skim	skim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	through	through	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
20	rapid	rapid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	motion	motion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **touch** | past | the magic sledge | the ground |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ground=Co-Theme |
| 2 | **seem** | past | sledge's birchwood runners |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **skim** | to-infinitive | sledge's birchwood runners *not said here* |  |  | the air |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past | rapid | sledge's motion |  |  |  | sledge *nmod:poss* | 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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