---
title: He gave the boy an axe and bade him cut an armload of kindlings for… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: He gave the boy an axe and bade him cut an armload of kindlings for the fire; but the worthless fellow began chopping the beams of the house. Who acts: slave, axe, worthless fellow. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Slave Boy, with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Slave Boy, sentence 15

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He gave the boy an axe and bade him cut an armload of kindlings for the fire; but the worthless fellow began chopping the beams of the house.

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**Who acts:** slave, axe, worthless fellow · **What happens:** give, cut, begin, chop, beam · **To what, where:** boy, armload, beams, house

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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, axe, worthless fellow), 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:pg66819:29:15
# text = He gave the boy an axe and bade him cut an armload of kindlings for the fire; but the worthless fellow began chopping the beams of the house.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	iobj	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	bade	bade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	armload	armload	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	kindlings	kindling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	worthless	worthless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
24	chopping	chop	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	xcomp	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	beams	beam	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | slave |  | the boy |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boy=Theme |
| 2 | **cut** | past | a axe and bade | a armload of kindlings for the fire |  |  |  | slave *nsubj* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material armload=Product |
| 3 | **begin** | past | the worthless fellow |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **chop** | gerund | the worthless fellow *not said here* | the beams of the house |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent beam=Patient |
| 5 | **beam** |  |  | the house |  |  |  |  | nom beam «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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.

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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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