---
title: Very small was the fisherman’s body, but his head was large and his… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Very small was the fisherman’s body, but his head was large and his arms were long. Who acts: head, arms. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Weeping Ship, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Weeping Ship, sentence 113

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Very small was the fisherman’s body, but his head was large and his arms were long.

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**Who acts:** head, arms · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** body

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Weeping Ship. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (head, arms), 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:pg66819:33:113
# text = Very small was the fisherman’s body, but his head was large and his arms were long.
1	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	fisherman	fisherman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’s	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  | the fisherman's body |  |  | small *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | fisherman's head |  |  |  |  | large *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | fisherman's arms |  |  |  |  | long *property* | 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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