---
title: “Surely you are unwise and selfish,” then said the Minstrel, “and fo… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “Surely you are unwise and selfish,” then said the Minstrel, “and foolish it would be to waste words in argument. Who acts: you, Minstrel, cover. 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 cla
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Triumph of Music, sentence 54

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“Surely you are unwise and selfish,” then said the Minstrel, “and foolish it would be to waste words in argument.

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**Who acts:** you, Minstrel, cover · **What happens:** be, say · **To what, where:** argument · **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 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 (you, Minstrel, cover), 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:pg66819:35:54
# text = “Surely you are unwise and selfish,” then said the Minstrel, “and foolish it would be to waste words in argument.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	unwise	unwise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	ccomp	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	selfish	selfish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	waste	waste	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
23	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	argument	argument	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | selfish *conj*; surely, unwise *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Minstrel |  |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | would | cover |  |  | argument |  | words *obj*; waste *property* | 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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