---
title: All that night he held the Smith’s strong hand and talked of naught… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: All that night he held the Smith’s strong hand and talked of naught but the Sampo and how, by it, they might save the lives of their famishing friends and neighbors. Who acts: Minstrel, locks. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Famine, with its dependency
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Famine, sentence 72

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All that night he held the Smith’s strong hand and talked of naught but the Sampo and how, by it, they might save the lives of their famishing friends and neighbors.

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**Who acts:** Minstrel, locks · **What happens:** hold, talk, save, famish · **To what, where:** strong hand, lives

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Famine. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Minstrel, locks), 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:pg66819:32:72
# text = All that night he held the Smith’s strong hand and talked of naught but the Sampo and how, by it, they might save the lives of their famishing friends and neighbors.
1	All	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	3	det:predet	_	_
2	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Smith	Smith	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’s	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	naught	naught	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	12	obl	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Sampo	Sampo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
31	famishing	famish	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	32	amod	_	_
32	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	neighbors	neighbor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | past | Minstrel | the Smith's strong hand |  |  | night |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 2 | **talk** | past | Minstrel *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of naught  the Sampo; by hand | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **save** | might | locks *= lock* | the lives of locks's famishing friends and neighbors |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 4 | **famish** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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