---
title: A sturdy swimmer he was, like the seals, his only neighbors; and the… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: A sturdy swimmer he was, like the seals, his only neighbors; and the water held no terrors for him, buffet him as it might. Who acts: sturdy swimmer, water. 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 ev
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/33/146/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old No…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/) / [The Weeping Ship](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/33/) / 146

# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Weeping Ship, sentence 146

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A sturdy swimmer he was, like the seals, his only neighbors; and the water held no terrors for him, buffet him as it might.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sturdy swimmer, water · **What happens:** be, hold, buffet · **To what, where:** terrors, fisherman

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (sturdy swimmer, water), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66819:33:146
# text = A sturdy swimmer he was, like the seals, his only neighbors; and the water held no terrors for him, buffet him as it might.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	sturdy	sturdy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	swimmer	swimmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	like	like	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	seals	seal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	neighbors	neighbor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	terrors	terror	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	buffet	buffet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | a sturdy swimmer |  |  |  |  | like the seals and fisherman's only neighbors; fisherman *nsubj*; fisherman's only neighbors *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **hold** | past | the water | no terrors |  |  |  | for fisherman | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent terror=Theme |
| 3 | **buffet** | infinitive | the water *not said here* |  | fisherman |  |  |  | vn pelt-17.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Destination |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 145](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/33/145/)
- next →: [sentence 147](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/33/147/)
- ↑ back to [The Weeping Ship](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/33/)