---
title: It was the sound made by the magic mill, grinding, grinding forever… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: It was the sound made by the magic mill, grinding, grinding forever in the cave beneath the hill of copper. Who acts: head. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Triumph of Music, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Triumph of Music, sentence 17

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It was the sound made by the magic mill, grinding, grinding forever in the cave beneath the hill of copper.

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**Who acts:** head · **What happens:** be, make, grind · **To what, where:** sound, cave

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Triumph of Music. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (head), 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:pg66819:35:17
# text = It was the sound made by the magic mill, grinding, grinding forever in the cave beneath the hill of copper.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	magic	magic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	grinding	grind	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	grinding	grind	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
14	forever	forever	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	copper	copper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | head | the sound |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | participle |  | the sound *not said here* |  |  |  | by the magic mill | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 3 | **grind** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **grind** | gerund |  |  |  | the cave |  | beneath the hill of copper; forever *property* | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=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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