---
title: Then, while with his sword he kept time to the rhythm of his song, h… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Then, while with his sword he kept time to the rhythm of his song, he began a soft carol, sweet and low and very persuasive. Who acts: Minstrel. 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 77

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then, while with his sword he kept time to the rhythm of his song, he began a soft carol, sweet and low and very persuasive.

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**Who acts:** Minstrel · **What happens:** keep, begin, sing · **To what, where:** soft carol

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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 (Minstrel), 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:pg66819:33:77
# text = Then, while with his sword he kept time to the rhythm of his song, he began a soft carol, sweet and low and very persuasive.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
9	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	rhythm	rhythm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	carol	carol	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	sweet	sweet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	very	very	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	persuasive	persuasive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | past | Minstrel |  |  |  | time | with Minstrel's sword; to the rhythm of Minstrel's song | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **begin** | past | Minstrel | a soft carol |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent carol=Eventuality |
| 3 | **sing** |  | Minstrel |  |  |  |  |  | nom song «communication intransitive»: poss=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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