---
title: While the Smith sat at the helm and guided the vessel out through th… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: While the Smith sat at the helm and guided the vessel out through the narrow inlet, the Minstrel stood up beneath the flapping sail and sang songs of magic, songs which he had wellnigh forgotten. Who acts: Smith, Minstrel, songs, magic. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by Ja
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Weeping Ship, sentence 75

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While the Smith sat at the helm and guided the vessel out through the narrow inlet, the Minstrel stood up beneath the flapping sail and sang songs of magic, songs which he had wellnigh forgotten.

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**Who acts:** Smith, Minstrel, songs, magic · **What happens:** sit, guide out, stand up, flap, sing, have · **To what, where:** helm, vessel, narrow inlet, flapping sail, songs

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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 (Smith, Minstrel, songs, magic), 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:pg66819:33:75
# text = While the Smith sat at the helm and guided the vessel out through the narrow inlet, the Minstrel stood up beneath the flapping sail and sang songs of magic, songs which he had wellnigh forgotten.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Smith	Smith	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	helm	helm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	guided	guide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	out	out	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
13	through	through	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	inlet	inlet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
21	up	up	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	flapping	flap	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	amod	_	_
25	sail	sail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
28	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	magic	magic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	_
33	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	35	obj	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	acl:relcl	_	_
36	wellnigh	wellnigh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	xcomp	_	_
37	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | the Smith |  |  | the helm |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at helm=Location |
| 2 | **guide out** | past | the Smith *not said here* | the vessel |  | the narrow inlet |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent vessel=Theme through inlet=Destination |
| 3 | **stand up** | past | the Minstrel |  |  | the flapping sail |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beneath sail=Location |
| 4 | **flap** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | the Minstrel *not said here* | songs of magic and songs |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location song=Theme |
| 6 | **have** | past | Minstrel | songs |  |  |  | wellnigh *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **forget** | participle | songs *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **sing** |  | magic |  |  |  |  |  | nom song «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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