---
title: While we were all drowned in slumber they broke into the cavern bene… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: While we were all drowned in slumber they broke into the cavern beneath the copper mountain, they drew back the bolts and opened the mighty doors. Who acts: men. 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 eve
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/36/111/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old No…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/) / [The Flight](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/36/) / 111

# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Flight, sentence 111

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While we were all drowned in slumber they broke into the cavern beneath the copper mountain, they drew back the bolts and opened the mighty doors.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** men · **What happens:** drown, break, draw back, open · **To what, where:** we, slumber, cavern, bolts, mighty doors

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (men), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66819:36:111
# text = While we were all drowned in slumber they broke into the cavern beneath the copper mountain, they drew back the bolts and opened the mighty doors.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
4	all	all	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	drowned	drown	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	advcl	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	slumber	slumber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	into	into	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	cavern	cavern	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	copper	copper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
20	back	back	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	bolts	bolt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	doors	door	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drown** | past · passive |  | we |  | slumber |  | all *property* | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **break** | past | men *= man* |  |  | the cavern |  | beneath the copper mountain | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme beneath mountain=Location |
| 3 | **draw back** | past | men *= man* | the bolts |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bolt=Theme |
| 4 | **open** | past | men *= man* *not said here* | the mighty doors |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location door=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 110](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/36/110/)
- next →: [sentence 112](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/36/112/)
- ↑ back to [The Flight](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/36/)