---
title: “What a pity that these should be wasted!” said the Minstrel, pickin… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “What a pity that these should be wasted!” said the Minstrel, picking up a fragment of the jawbone—a fragment with the teeth still fast within their sockets. Who acts: Minstrel. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Kantele, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Kantele, sentence 63

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“What a pity that these should be wasted!” said the Minstrel, picking up a fragment of the jawbone—a fragment with the teeth still fast within their sockets.

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**Who acts:** Minstrel · **What happens:** pity, waste, say, pick up · **To what, where:** pity, fragment · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Minstrel), 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:pg66819:34:63
# text = “What a pity that these should be wasted!” said the Minstrel, picking up a fragment of the jawbone—a fragment with the teeth still fast within their sockets.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	wasted	waste	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	picking	pick	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	fragment	fragment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	jawbone	jawbone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	fragment	fragment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	appos	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	_
29	still	still	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
31	within	within	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	sockets	socket	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pity** *in a quote* |  |  |  |  |  |  | What *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **waste** *in a quote* | should · passive |  | a pity |  |  |  | these *nsubj:pass* | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the Minstrel |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **pick up** | gerund | the Minstrel *not said here* | a fragment of the jawbone |  |  | still | fast *property* | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fragment=Topic |

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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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