---
title: With all his strength he struck at the fish, thinking to cleave it i… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: With all his strength he struck at the fish, thinking to cleave it in twain. Who acts: Up. 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 35

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With all his strength he struck at the fish, thinking to cleave it in twain.

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**Who acts:** Up · **What happens:** strike, think, cleave · **To what, where:** fish, twain

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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 (Up), 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:pg66819:34:35
# text = With all his strength he struck at the fish, thinking to cleave it in twain.
1	With	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	4	det:predet	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	cleave	cleave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	twain	twain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | past | Up |  |  |  |  | with Up's strength; at the fish | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP PP»: agent=Agent with strength=Instrument at fish=Patient |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | Up *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **cleave** | to-infinitive | Up *not said here* | fish |  | twain |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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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