---
title: I am afraid!” whispers the third milkmaid, shrinking back into the s… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: I am afraid!” whispers the third milkmaid, shrinking back into the shadows. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, A Dreadful Vengeance, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, A Dreadful Vengeance, sentence 44

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I am afraid!” whispers the third milkmaid, shrinking back into the shadows.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, whisper, shrink back · **To what, where:** third milkmaid, shadows · **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, 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 (I), 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:pg66819:30:44
# text = I am afraid!” whispers the third milkmaid, shrinking back into the shadows.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	whispers	whisper	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	third	third	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	9	amod	_	_
9	milkmaid	milkmaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	shrinking	shrink	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
12	back	back	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	into	into	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	shadows	shadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **whisper** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present |  | the third milkmaid |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent milkmaid=Topic |
| 3 | **shrink back** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | into the shadows *result* | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent into shadow=Result |

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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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