---
title: Like a monstrous sea-bird skimming over the waves, or like a white c… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Like a monstrous sea-bird skimming over the waves, or like a white cloud scudding low upon the billows, so did the swift warship speed onward over the vast and measureless sea. Who acts: white cloud. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Pursuit, with its de
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Pursuit, sentence 19

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Like a monstrous sea-bird skimming over the waves, or like a white cloud scudding low upon the billows, so did the swift warship speed onward over the vast and measureless sea.

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**Who acts:** white cloud · **What happens:** scud, do · **To what, where:** billows, swift warship speed, vast sea

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Pursuit. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (white cloud), 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:pg66819:37:19
# text = Like a monstrous sea-bird skimming over the waves, or like a white cloud scudding low upon the billows, so did the swift warship speed onward over the vast and measureless sea.
1	Like	like	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
3	monstrous	monstrous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
4	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	skimming	skimming	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
8	over	over	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	like	like	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
17	scudding	scud	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	acl	_	_
18	low	low	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	_
19	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	billows	billow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
23	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
26	swift	swift	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
27	warship	warship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	speed	speed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
29	onward	onward	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
30	over	over	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
32	vast	vast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	measureless	measureless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	conj	_	_
35	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scud** | gerund | a white cloud *not said here* |  |  | the billows |  | low *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon billow=Trajectory |
| 2 | **do** | past |  | the swift warship speed |  | the vast sea |  | like a monstrous bird skimming over the waves or a white cloud; onward *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent speed=Eventuality |

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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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