---
title: By the long white shore a blue crane was wading, looking down to cou… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: By the long white shore a blue crane was wading, looking down to count his toes in the clear sea-water. Who acts: blue crane. 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 88

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By the long white shore a blue crane was wading, looking down to count his toes in the clear sea-water.

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**Who acts:** blue crane · **What happens:** wade, look down, count · **To what, where:** toes, clear sea water

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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 (blue crane), 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:pg66819:36:88
# text = By the long white shore a blue crane was wading, looking down to count his toes in the clear sea-water.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	crane	crane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	wading	wade	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
13	down	down	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	count	count	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	toes	toe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
20	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
21	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wade** | past · progressive | a blue crane |  |  |  |  | by the long white shore | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by shore=Trajectory |
| 2 | **look down** | gerund | a blue crane *not said here* |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **count** | to-infinitive | a blue crane *not said here* | chin's toes |  | the clear sea water |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent toe=Theme |

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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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