---
title: They left off playing with their silken tresses, they dropped their… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: They left off playing with their silken tresses, they dropped their combs and their silver brushes and lifted their comely heads to enjoy the Minstrel’s wondrous songs. Who acts: nymphs, Minstrel. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Triumph of Music, with 
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Triumph of Music, sentence 88

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They left off playing with their silken tresses, they dropped their combs and their silver brushes and lifted their comely heads to enjoy the Minstrel’s wondrous songs.

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**Who acts:** nymphs, Minstrel · **What happens:** leave off, play, drop, lift, enjoy, sing · **To what, where:** combs, comely heads, wondrous songs

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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 (nymphs, 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:pg66819:35:88
# text = They left off playing with their silken tresses, they dropped their combs and their silver brushes and lifted their comely heads to enjoy the Minstrel’s wondrous songs.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	off	off	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	playing	play	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	xcomp	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	silken	silken	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	tresses	tress	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	combs	comb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	brushes	brush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	comely	comely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	enjoy	enjoy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’s	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	wondrous	wondrous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave off** | past | nymphs *= nymph* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **play** | gerund | nymphs *= nymph* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with nymphs's silken tresses | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with tress=Theme |
| 3 | **drop** | past | nymphs *= nymph* | nymphs's combs and nymphs's silver brushes |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent comb=Theme |
| 4 | **lift** | past | nymphs *= nymph* *not said here* | nymphs's comely heads |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 5 | **enjoy** | to-infinitive | nymphs *= nymph* *not said here* | the Minstrel's wondrous songs |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer song=Stimulus |
| 6 | **sing** |  | the Minstrel |  |  |  |  |  | nom song «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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