---
title: “It is a good price for him, more than he is worth,” said all his ne… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “It is a good price for him, more than he is worth,” said all his neighbors, for they knew that the slave would serve him ill. Who acts: price, slave, good price, neighbors. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Slave Boy, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/12/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old No…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/) / [The Slave Boy](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/) / 12

# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Slave Boy, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“It is a good price for him, more than he is worth,” said all his neighbors, for they knew that the slave would serve him ill.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** price, slave, good price, neighbors · **What happens:** be, say, know, serve · **To what, where:** good price, neighbors, Kullervo · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (price, slave, good price, neighbors), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66819:29:12
# text = “It is a good price for him, more than he is worth,” said all his neighbors, for they knew that the slave would serve him ill.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	price	price	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	conj	_	_
11	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	20	det:predet	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	neighbors	neighbor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	parataxis	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	ccomp	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | price | a good price |  |  |  | for slave | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** *in a quote* |  | price *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | slave |  |  |  |  | worth *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a good price | slave's neighbors |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent neighbor=Topic |
| 5 | **know** | past | neighbors *= neighbor* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **serve** | would | the slave | Kullervo |  |  |  | ill *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Attribute |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/11/)
- next →: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/13/)
- ↑ back to [The Slave Boy](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/)