---
title: They grasped the oars with their slender fingers, they strained with… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: They grasped the oars with their slender fingers, they strained with their arms, their faces blushed scarlet red. Who acts: rowlocks, faces. 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 95

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They grasped the oars with their slender fingers, they strained with their arms, their faces blushed scarlet red.

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**Who acts:** rowlocks, faces · **What happens:** grasp, strain, blush, scarlet · **To what, where:** oars

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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 (rowlocks, faces), 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:pg66819:33:95
# text = They grasped the oars with their slender fingers, they strained with their arms, their faces blushed scarlet red.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	grasped	grasp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	oars	oar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	slender	slender	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	strained	strain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	faces	face	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	blushed	blush	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
19	scarlet	scarlet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
20	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grasp** | past | rowlocks *= rowlock* | the oars |  |  |  | with rowlocks's slender fingers | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent oar=Experiencer with finger=Instrument |
| 2 | **strain** | past | rowlocks *= rowlock* |  |  |  |  | with rowlocks's arms | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **blush** | past | rowlocks's faces |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **scarlet** | infinitive | rowlocks's faces *not said here* |  |  |  |  | red *property* | tree rules |

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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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