---
title: Give lightness to the rudder, give skill to the helmsman, and swiftl… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Give lightness to the rudder, give skill to the helmsman, and swiftly bear us over this vast expanse of water.” Who acts: you. 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 clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Flight, sentence 49

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Give lightness to the rudder, give skill to the helmsman, and swiftly bear us over this vast expanse of water.”

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** give, bear · **To what, where:** lightness, rudder, skill, helmsman, us, vast expanse

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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 (you), 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:pg66819:36:49
# text = Give lightness to the rudder, give skill to the helmsman, and swiftly bear us over this vast expanse of water.”
1	Give	give	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	lightness	lightness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	rudder	rudder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	give	give	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
8	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	helmsman	helmsman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	bear	bear	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
16	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	over	over	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
19	vast	vast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	expanse	expanse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | imperative | you *not said here* | lightness | the rudder |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent lightness=Theme to rudder=Recipient |
| 2 | **give** | infinitive | you *not said here* | skill | the helmsman |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent skill=Theme to helmsman=Recipient |
| 3 | **bear** | infinitive | you *not said here* | us |  | this vast expanse of water |  | swiftly *property* | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Patient |

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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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