---
title: From a safe seat in the crotch of a pine the slave boy looked on and… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: From a safe seat in the crotch of a pine the slave boy looked on and watched the slaughter; and he laughed a wild, discordant, triumphant laugh. Who acts: slave boy, boy. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Slave Boy, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Slave Boy, sentence 137

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From a safe seat in the crotch of a pine the slave boy looked on and watched the slaughter; and he laughed a wild, discordant, triumphant laugh.

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**Who acts:** slave boy, boy · **What happens:** look on, watch, laugh · **To what, where:** slaughter, wild discordant triumphant laugh

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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 boy, boy), 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:pg66819:29:137
# text = From a safe seat in the crotch of a pine the slave boy looked on and watched the slaughter; and he laughed a wild, discordant, triumphant laugh.
1	From	from	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	seat	seat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	crotch	crotch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	pine	pine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	slaughter	slaughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
25	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
27	discordant	discordant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
29	triumphant	triumphant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	laugh	laugh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look on** | past | the slave boy |  |  |  |  | from a safe seat in the crotch of a pine | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent from seat=Theme |
| 2 | **watch** | past | the slave boy *not said here* | the slaughter |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent slaughter=Theme |
| 3 | **laugh** | past | boy | a wild discordant triumphant laugh |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent laugh=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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