--- title: And as he sang, behold, a wonderful thing occurred: all the wolves s… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics description: And as he sang, behold, a wonderful thing occurred: all the wolves so lately feasting were changed into sleek, fat yearlings, and all the bears so lately gorging themselves became fine milk cows with mild, soft eyes and pendent udders. Who acts: boy, wonderful thing, feasting, bears. A sentence of « --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/140/) [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/) / 140 # The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Slave Boy, sentence 140 And as he sang, behold, a wonderful thing occurred: all the wolves so lately feasting were changed into sleek, fat yearlings, and all the bears so lately gorging themselves became fine milk cows with mild, soft eyes and pendent udders. **Who acts:** boy, wonderful thing, feasting, bears · **What happens:** sing, occur, feast, change, gorge, become · **To what, where:** wolves, bears, fine milk cows 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 (boy, wonderful thing, feasting, bears), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg66819:29:140 # text = And as he sang, behold, a wonderful thing occurred: all the wolves so lately feasting were changed into sleek, fat yearlings, and all the bears so lately gorging themselves became fine milk cows with mild, soft eyes and pendent udders. 1 And and CCONJ CC _ 11 cc _ _ 2 as as SCONJ IN _ 4 mark _ _ 3 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ _ 4 sang sing VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 11 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 5 , , PUNCT , _ 6 punct _ _ 6 behold behold INTJ UH _ 4 discourse _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 4 punct _ _ 8 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 10 det _ _ 9 wonderful wonderful ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 10 amod _ _ 10 thing thing NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 nsubj _ _ 11 occurred occur VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ SpaceAfter=No 12 : : PUNCT : _ 11 punct _ _ 13 all all DET PDT PronType=Tot 15 det:predet _ _ 14 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 15 wolves wolf NOUN NNS Number=Plur 11 obj _ _ 16 so so ADV RB _ 18 advmod _ _ 17 lately lately ADV RB _ 18 advmod _ _ 18 feasting feast VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 20 csubj:pass _ _ 19 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 20 aux:pass _ _ 20 changed change VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 11 parataxis _ _ 21 into into ADP IN _ 25 case _ _ 22 sleek sleek ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 25 amod _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 24 fat fat ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 25 amod _ _ 25 yearlings yearling NOUN NNS Number=Plur 20 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 26 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 27 and and CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ _ 28 all all DET PDT PronType=Tot 30 det:predet _ _ 29 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 bears bear NOUN NNS Number=Plur 33 nsubj _ _ 31 so so ADV RB _ 33 advmod _ _ 32 lately lately ADV RB _ 33 advmod _ _ 33 gorging gorge VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 35 nsubj _ _ 34 themselves themselves PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 33 obj _ _ 35 became become VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 11 parataxis _ _ 36 fine fine ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 38 amod _ _ 37 milk milk NOUN NN Number=Sing 38 compound _ _ 38 cows cow NOUN NNS Number=Plur 35 xcomp _ _ 39 with with ADP IN _ 43 case _ _ 40 mild mild ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 43 amod _ SpaceAfter=No 41 , , PUNCT , _ 40 punct _ _ 42 soft soft ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 43 amod _ _ 43 eyes eye NOUN NNS Number=Plur 38 nmod _ _ 44 and and CCONJ CC _ 46 cc _ _ 45 pendent pendent ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 46 amod _ _ 46 udders udder NOUN NNS Number=Plur 43 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 47 . . PUNCT . _ 11 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | boy | | | | | | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location | | 2 | **occur** | past | a wonderful thing | all wolves | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **feast** | gerund | | | | | | lately *property* | vn dine-39.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **change** | past · passive | feasting | | | | | into sleek fat yearlings *result* | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.result»: into yearling=Result | | 5 | **gorge** | gerund | all bears | bears *= bear* | | | | lately *property* | tree rules | | 6 | **become** | past | | fine milk cows with mild soft eyes and pendent udders | | | | | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 139](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/139/) - next →: [sentence 141](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/141/) - ↑ back to [The Slave Boy](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/)