---
title: Worms are gnawing through my beams; toads are leaping in my hold; bi… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Worms are gnawing through my beams; toads are leaping in my hold; birds are nesting on my mast; all my sails and ropes are mildewed. Who acts: Worms, toads, birds, my. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Weeping Ship, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Weeping Ship, sentence 64

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Worms are gnawing through my beams; toads are leaping in my hold; birds are nesting on my mast; all my sails and ropes are mildewed.

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**Who acts:** Worms, toads, birds, my · **What happens:** gnaw, leap, nest, mildew, beam, hold · **To what, where:** beams, hold, mast, sails

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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 (Worms, toads, birds, my), 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:pg66819:33:64
# text = Worms are gnawing through my beams; toads are leaping in my hold; birds are nesting on my mast; all my sails and ropes are mildewed.
1	Worms	worm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	gnawing	gnaw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	through	through	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	beams	beam	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
8	toads	toad	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
9	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	leaping	leap	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
16	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	nesting	nest	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	mast	mast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
22	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	24	det:predet	_	_
23	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	sails	sail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	ropes	rope	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	conj	_	_
27	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	mildewed	mildew	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **gnaw** | present · progressive | Worms |  |  | my beams |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **leap** | present · progressive | toads |  |  | my hold |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hold=Trajectory |
| 3 | **nest** | present · progressive | birds |  |  | my mast |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **mildew** | present · passive |  | my sails and ropes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **beam** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom beam «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **hold** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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