---
title: With noiseless steps he ran among the beasts, breathing words of mag… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: With noiseless steps he ran among the beasts, breathing words of magic, words of cunning in their ears. Who acts: 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 pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Slave Boy, sentence 146

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With noiseless steps he ran among the beasts, breathing words of magic, words of cunning in their ears.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** run, breathe, word · **To what, where:** beasts, words, ears, magic, cunning

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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 (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:pg66819:29:146
# text = With noiseless steps he ran among the beasts, breathing words of magic, words of cunning in their ears.
1	With	with	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	noiseless	noiseless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	among	among	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	breathing	breathe	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
11	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	magic	magic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	cunning	cunning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **run** | past | boy |  |  | the beasts |  | with noiseless steps | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme among beast=Trajectory |
| 2 | **breathe** | gerund | boy *not said here* | words of magic and words of cunning |  | words's ears |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme |
| 3 | **word** |  |  | magic |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 4 | **word** |  |  | cunning |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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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