---
title: Then came an old serving-man with trembling limbs and with tears in… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Then came an old serving-man with trembling limbs and with tears in his eyes, who knelt in the dust before her and begged her mercy. Who acts: old serving man. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Flight, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Flight, sentence 109

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Then came an old serving-man with trembling limbs and with tears in his eyes, who knelt in the dust before her and begged her mercy.

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**Who acts:** old serving man · **What happens:** come, kneel, beg · **To what, where:** dust, mercy

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Flight. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old serving man), 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:pg66819:36:109
# text = Then came an old serving-man with trembling limbs and with tears in his eyes, who knelt in the dust before her and begged her mercy.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
5	serving	serving	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	trembling	trembling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	limbs	limb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	knelt	kneel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	before	before	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
27	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | a old serving man with trembling limbs and tears in Sampo's eyes |  |  |  | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **kneel** | past | a old serving man with trembling limbs and tears in Sampo's eyes |  |  | the dust | before Louhi |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in dust=Location |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | a old serving man with trembling limbs and tears in Sampo's eyes *not said here* | Louhi's mercy |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent mercy=Recipient |

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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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