---
title: “He must needs have strong teeth to eat it,” she muttered, “but it i… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “He must needs have strong teeth to eat it,” she muttered, “but it is good enough for him.” Who acts: master, task, slice. 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 35

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“He must needs have strong teeth to eat it,” she muttered, “but it is good enough for him.”

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**Who acts:** master, task, slice · **What happens:** have, eat, mutter, be · **To what, where:** strong teeth, slice · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (master, task, slice), 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:pg66819:29:35
# text = “He must needs have strong teeth to eat it,” she muttered, “but it is good enough for him.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	needs	need	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
6	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	muttered	mutter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
21	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | must | master | strong teeth |  |  |  | needs *nsubj* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tooth=Patient |
| 2 | **eat** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | master *not said here* | slice |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 3 | **mutter** *speech: assert* | past | task |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | slice |  |  |  |  | for master; enough, good *property* | tree rules |

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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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