---
title: “A herdsman’s task requires neither skill nor wearying labor, and pe… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “A herdsman’s task requires neither skill nor wearying labor, and perhaps the slave will find his proper place among the cattle in the quiet pastures.” Who acts: task, slave, herdsman. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Slave Boy, with its dependency tree
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/24/)

<!-- 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/) / 24

# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Slave Boy, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“A herdsman’s task requires neither skill nor wearying labor, and perhaps the slave will find his proper place among the cattle in the quiet pastures.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** task, slave, herdsman · **What happens:** require, weary, find, task · **To what, where:** skill, labor, proper place

<!-- .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 (task, slave, herdsman), 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:pg66819:29:24
# text = “A herdsman’s task requires neither skill nor wearying labor, and perhaps the slave will find his proper place among the cattle in the quiet pastures.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	herdsman	herdsman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’s	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	requires	require	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	8	cc:preconj	_	_
8	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	10	cc	_	_
10	wearying	weary	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
11	labor	labor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	proper	proper	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	among	among	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	cattle	cattle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	pastures	pasture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **require** *in a quote* | present | a herdsman's task | skill |  |  |  |  | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme skill=Precondition |
| 2 | **weary** *in a quote* | gerund | a herdsman's task *not said here* | labor |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus labor=Experiencer |
| 3 | **find** *in a quote* | future | the slave | slave's proper place |  |  |  | among the cattle in the quiet pastures; perhaps *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Topic |
| 4 | **task** *in a quote* |  | a herdsman |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/23/)
- next →: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/25/)
- ↑ back to [The Slave Boy](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/)