---
title: If the fish should sink, it will drag our vessel down into the depth… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: If the fish should sink, it will drag our vessel down into the depths; if it should rise, it will tumble us all headlong into the sea.” Who acts: fish. 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 23

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If the fish should sink, it will drag our vessel down into the depths; if it should rise, it will tumble us all headlong into the sea.”

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**Who acts:** fish · **What happens:** sink, drag down, rise, tumble · **To what, where:** vessel, depths, us

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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 (fish), 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:pg66819:34:23
# text = If the fish should sink, it will drag our vessel down into the depths; if it should rise, it will tumble us all headlong into the sea.”
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	sink	sink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	drag	drag	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	down	down	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
13	into	into	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	depths	depth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	rise	rise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	tumble	tumble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
25	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	27	advmod	_	_
27	headlong	headlong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	xcomp	_	_
28	into	into	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sink** *a condition, not said to happen* | should | the fish |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **drag down** | future | fish | our vessel |  | the depths |  | down *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vessel=Theme |
| 3 | **rise** *a condition, not said to happen* | should | fish |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **tumble** | future | fish | us |  |  |  | into the sea; headlong *property* | vn mix-22.1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent we=Patient into sea=Co-Patient |

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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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