---
title: The slave boy growled a surly answer, and went slouching behind the… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: The slave boy growled a surly answer, and went slouching behind the herd, shouting to the laggers and casting stones at the browsing oxen. Who acts: slave 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 ev
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Slave Boy, sentence 58

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The slave boy growled a surly answer, and went slouching behind the herd, shouting to the laggers and casting stones at the browsing oxen.

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**Who acts:** slave boy · **What happens:** growl, go, slouch, shout · **To what, where:** surly answer, herd, laggers, browsing oxen

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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 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:pg66819:29:58
# text = The slave boy growled a surly answer, and went slouching behind the herd, shouting to the laggers and casting stones at the browsing oxen.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	growled	growl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	surly	surly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	slouching	slouch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	xcomp	_	_
12	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	herd	herd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	shouting	shout	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	conj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	laggers	lagger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	casting	casting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	conj	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	browsing	browsing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **growl** | past | the slave boy | a surly answer |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent answer=Topic |
| 2 | **go** | past | the slave boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **slouch** | gerund | the slave boy *not said here* |  |  | the herd |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent behind herd=Location |
| 4 | **shout** *speech: express* | gerund | the slave boy *not said here* |  | the laggers and casting stones | the browsing oxen |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to lagger=Recipient |

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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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