---
title: On the benches the rowers sat, wielding their oars with strength and… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: On the benches the rowers sat, wielding their oars with strength and deftness and singing and shouting for gladness. Who acts: rowers. 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 2

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On the benches the rowers sat, wielding their oars with strength and deftness and singing and shouting for gladness.

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**Who acts:** rowers · **What happens:** sit, wield, sing, shout · **To what, where:** benches, oars

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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 (rowers), 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:pg66819:34:2
# text = On the benches the rowers sat, wielding their oars with strength and deftness and singing and shouting for gladness.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	benches	bench	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	rowers	rower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	wielding	wield	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	oars	oar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	deftness	deftness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	shouting	shout	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	conj	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	gladness	gladness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | the rowers |  |  | the benches |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on bench=Location |
| 2 | **wield** | gerund | the rowers *not said here* | rowers's oars |  |  |  | with strength and deftness | vn hold-15.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent oar=Theme |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | the rowers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **shout** *speech: express* | gerund | the rowers *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for gladness | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient S\_INF»: agent=Agent for gladness=Recipient |

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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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