---
title: Holding fast with one hand to the vessel’s edge, he let himself down… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Holding fast with one hand to the vessel’s edge, he let himself down into the water. Who acts: hero. 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 clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Kantele, sentence 16

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Holding fast with one hand to the vessel’s edge, he let himself down into the water.

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**Who acts:** hero · **What happens:** hold, let down · **To what, where:** hero, water

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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 (hero), 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:pg66819:34:16
# text = Holding fast with one hand to the vessel’s edge, he let himself down into the water.
1	Holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
2	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	1	advmod	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obj	_	_
15	down	down	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
16	into	into	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | gerund | hero *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with one hand; to the vessel's edge; fast *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **let down** | past | hero | hero |  | the water |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=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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