---
title: I would rather be a mountain pine tree, or an oak in the valley with… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: I would rather be a mountain pine tree, or an oak in the valley with squirrels leaping among my branches.” Who acts: I, squirrels. 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 65

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I would rather be a mountain pine tree, or an oak in the valley with squirrels leaping among my branches.”

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**Who acts:** I, squirrels · **What happens:** be, leap · **To what, where:** pine tree, branches

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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 (I, squirrels), 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:pg66819:33:65
# text = I would rather be a mountain pine tree, or an oak in the valley with squirrels leaping among my branches.”
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
3	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	pine	pine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	valley	valley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	squirrels	squirrel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
18	leaping	leap	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
19	among	among	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | would | I | a pine tree or a oak in the valley with squirrels |  |  |  | a oak in the valley with squirrels *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **leap** | gerund | squirrels *not said here* |  |  | my branches |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme among branch=Trajectory |

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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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