---
title: The nimble Ahti seized a long pole and thrust it into the water, try… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: The nimble Ahti seized a long pole and thrust it into the water, trying with all his great strength to push the ship along. Who acts: nimble Ahti, ship. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Kantele, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Kantele, sentence 10

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The nimble Ahti seized a long pole and thrust it into the water, trying with all his great strength to push the ship along.

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**Who acts:** nimble Ahti, ship · **What happens:** seize, pole, try, push · **To what, where:** water, ship

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Kantele. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nimble Ahti, ship), 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:pg66819:34:10
# text = The nimble Ahti seized a long pole and thrust it into the water, trying with all his great strength to push the ship along.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	nimble	nimble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Ahti	Ahti	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	pole	pole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	thrust	thrust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
11	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	20	det:predet	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	push	push	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	along	along	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past | the nimble Ahti |  |  | the water |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **pole** |  | ship |  |  |  |  | thrust *conj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **try** | gerund | the nimble Ahti *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with Ahti's great strength | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **push** | to-infinitive | the nimble Ahti *not said here* | the ship |  |  |  | along *property* | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ship=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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