---
title: Methinks I see them even now, tripping lightly from the doorway, eac… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Methinks I see them even now, tripping lightly from the doorway, each with a sweet-smelling cedar-wood pail, and the foremost with a three-legged stool for the mistress. Who acts: Methinks. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, A Dreadful Vengeance, with its dep
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, A Dreadful Vengeance, sentence 26

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Methinks I see them even now, tripping lightly from the doorway, each with a sweet-smelling cedar-wood pail, and the foremost with a three-legged stool for the mistress.

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**Who acts:** Methinks · **What happens:** see, trip, smell · **To what, where:** milkmaids, doorway

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, A Dreadful Vengeance. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Methinks), 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:pg66819:30:26
# text = Methinks I see them even now, tripping lightly from the doorway, each with a sweet-smelling cedar-wood pail, and the foremost with a three-legged stool for the mistress.
1	Methinks	methink	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	even	even	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	tripping	trip	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
9	lightly	lightly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	doorway	doorway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	nmod	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
17	sweet	sweet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	smelling	smell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	amod	_	_
20	cedar	cedar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	pail	pail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	foremost	foremost	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
30	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	nummod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	legged	legged	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	stool	stool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
34	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	mistress	mistress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | present | Methinks | milkmaids *= milkmaid* |  |  | now | I *nsubj* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 2 | **trip** | gerund | Methinks *not said here* |  |  | the doorway  each with a sweet smelling wood pail |  | lightly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from doorway=Trajectory |
| 3 | **smell** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn smell\_emission-43.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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