---
title: All night long he sat beside the couch, holding the maiden’s hands a… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: All night long he sat beside the couch, holding the maiden’s hands and breathing his own warm breath into her face. Who acts: Smith. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Golden Maiden, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Golden Maiden, sentence 123

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All night long he sat beside the couch, holding the maiden’s hands and breathing his own warm breath into her face.

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**Who acts:** Smith · **What happens:** sit, hold, breathe · **To what, where:** couch, hands, own warm breath, face

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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 (Smith), 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:pg66819:31:123
# text = All night long he sat beside the couch, holding the maiden’s hands and breathing his own warm breath into her face.
1	All	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	couch	couch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	breathing	breathe	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
18	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
21	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | Smith |  |  | the couch | night |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beside couch=Location |
| 2 | **hold** | gerund | Smith *not said here* | the maiden's hands |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 3 | **breathe** | gerund | Smith *not said here* | Smith's own warm breath |  | maid's face |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent breath=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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