---
title: “Sweeter than the chirping of song-birds—yes, sweeter than the warbl… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “Sweeter than the chirping of song-birds—yes, sweeter than the warbling of meadow larks—is the merry prattling of one’s own home folk,” returned the Minstrel. Who acts: Sweeter. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Golden Maiden, with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Golden Maiden, sentence 10

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“Sweeter than the chirping of song-birds—yes, sweeter than the warbling of meadow larks—is the merry prattling of one’s own home folk,” returned the Minstrel.

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**Who acts:** Sweeter · **What happens:** be, return · **To what, where:** merry prattling, Minstrel

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Golden Maiden. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sweeter), 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:pg66819:31:10
# text = “Sweeter than the chirping of song-birds—yes, sweeter than the warbling of meadow larks—is the merry prattling of one’s own home folk,” returned the Minstrel.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Sweeter	sweet	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	33	nsubj	_	_
3	than	than	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	chirping	chirping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	13	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	sweeter	sweet	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	conj	_	_
14	than	than	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	warbling	warbling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	meadow	meadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	larks	lark	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	prattling	prattling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’s	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
29	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	folk	folk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
33	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	33	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | Sweeter than the chirping of song birds *not said here* | the merry prattling |  |  |  | of own home folk | tree rules |
| 2 | **return** | past | Sweeter than the chirping of song birds | the Minstrel |  |  |  |  | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent minstrel=Theme |

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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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