---
title: They leaned forward, they dipped their oars in the waves, they strai… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: They leaned forward, they dipped their oars in the waves, they strained every muscle till the rowlocks groaned and cracked. Who acts: youths, rowlocks. 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 c
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Weeping Ship, sentence 88

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They leaned forward, they dipped their oars in the waves, they strained every muscle till the rowlocks groaned and cracked.

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**Who acts:** youths, rowlocks · **What happens:** learn, dip, strain, groan, crack · **To what, where:** oars, waves, muscle

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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 (youths, rowlocks), 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:pg66819:33:88
# text = They leaned forward, they dipped their oars in the waves, they strained every muscle till the rowlocks groaned and cracked.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	leaned	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	dipped	dip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	oars	oar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	strained	strain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
15	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	det	_	_
16	muscle	muscle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	rowlocks	rowlock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
20	groaned	groan	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	cracked	crack	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **learn** | past | youths *= youth* |  |  |  |  | forward *property* | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **dip** | past | youths *= youth* | youths's oars |  | the waves |  |  | vn funnel-9.3 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent oar=Theme in wave=Trajectory |
| 3 | **strain** | past | youths *= youth* | every muscle |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent muscle=Source |
| 4 | **groan** | past | the rowlocks |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **crack** | past | the rowlocks *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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