---
title: With his magic needles he crossed the eyelashes of the sleepers, pin… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: With his magic needles he crossed the eyelashes of the sleepers, pinning their eyelids close together and thus holding them so that they might not waken. Who acts: Minstrel, eyelids. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Flight, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Flight, sentence 8

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With his magic needles he crossed the eyelashes of the sleepers, pinning their eyelids close together and thus holding them so that they might not waken.

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**Who acts:** Minstrel, eyelids · **What happens:** cross, pin, close, hold, not waken · **To what, where:** eyelashes, eyelids

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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 (Minstrel, eyelids), 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:pg66819:36:8
# text = With his magic needles he crossed the eyelashes of the sleepers, pinning their eyelids close together and thus holding them so that they might not waken.
1	With	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	needles	needle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	crossed	cross	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	eyelashes	eyelash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	sleepers	sleeper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	pinning	pin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	eyelids	eyelid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	close	close	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
17	together	together	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	conj	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	27	mark	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	fixed	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	waken	waken	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cross** | past | Minstrel | the eyelashes of the sleepers |  |  |  | with Minstrel's magic needles | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eyelash=Patient |
| 2 | **pin** | gerund | Minstrel *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **close** | present | needles's eyelids |  |  |  |  | together *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **hold** | gerund | Minstrel *not said here* | eyelids *= eyelid* |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **waken** | might | eyelids *= eyelid* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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