---
title: She could hear the grains of gold dropping, dropping—the precious ro… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: She could hear the grains of gold dropping, dropping—the precious royal sap feeding the rootlets of the corn, filling the apple blossoms with nectar, and pervading the rich warm soil itself. Who acts: sound, precious royal sap, apple. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by Jame
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Triumph of Music, sentence 19

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She could hear the grains of gold dropping, dropping—the precious royal sap feeding the rootlets of the corn, filling the apple blossoms with nectar, and pervading the rich warm soil itself.

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**Who acts:** sound, precious royal sap, apple · **What happens:** hear, drop, feed, fill, blossom, pervade · **To what, where:** grains, precious royal sap, rootlets, rich warm soil

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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 (sound, precious royal sap, apple), 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:pg66819:35:19
# text = She could hear the grains of gold dropping, dropping—the precious royal sap feeding the rootlets of the corn, filling the apple blossoms with nectar, and pervading the rich warm soil itself.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	grains	grain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	dropping	dropping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	dropping	drop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	royal	royal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	sap	SAP	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	feeding	feed	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	rootlets	rootlet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	filling	fill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	apple	apple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	blossoms	blossom	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	parataxis	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	nectar	nectar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	pervading	pervade	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
33	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
34	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	soil	soil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
36	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	35	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | could | sound | the grains of gold dropping |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer grain=Stimulus |
| 2 | **drop** | gerund | sound *not said here* | the precious royal sap |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **feed** | gerund | the precious royal sap *not said here* | the rootlets of the corn |  |  |  |  | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rootlet=Recipient |
| 4 | **fill** | gerund | sound *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **blossom** | present | the apple |  |  |  |  | with nectar | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with nectar=Theme |
| 6 | **pervade** | gerund | sound *not said here* | the rich warm soil  apple |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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