---
title: “If he is wise he will pay them well for their cruel jest,” cawed th… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “If he is wise he will pay them well for their cruel jest,” cawed the one in the oak. Who acts: slave, stones. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Slave Boy, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Slave Boy, sentence 115

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“If he is wise he will pay them well for their cruel jest,” cawed the one in the oak.

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**Who acts:** slave, stones · **What happens:** be, pay, caw, jest · **To what, where:** stones, one, oak · **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 Slave Boy. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (slave, stones), 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:pg66819:29:115
# text = “If he is wise he will pay them well for their cruel jest,” cawed the one in the oak.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	advcl	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	pay	pay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	cruel	cruel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	jest	jest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
17	cawed	caw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | slave |  |  |  |  | wise *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **pay** *in a quote* | future | slave | stones *= stone* |  |  |  | for stones's cruel jest; well *property* | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Asset for jest=Theme |
| 3 | **caw** | past |  | the one |  | the oak |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent one=Theme |
| 4 | **jest** *in a quote* |  | stones *= stone* |  |  |  |  |  | nom jest «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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