---
title: Tell us whether the horizon is clear or whether clouds are rising in… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Tell us whether the horizon is clear or whether clouds are rising in the air to vex us. Who acts: you, horizon, clouds. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Pursuit, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Pursuit, sentence 28

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Tell us whether the horizon is clear or whether clouds are rising in the air to vex us.

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**Who acts:** you, horizon, clouds · **What happens:** tell, be, rise, vex · **To what, where:** us, air · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (you, horizon, clouds), 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:pg66819:37:28
# text = Tell us whether the horizon is clear or whether clouds are rising in the air to vex us.
1	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	1	iobj	_	_
3	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	horizon	horizon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	advcl	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	rising	rise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	vex	vex	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
18	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | imperative | you *not said here* |  | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent we=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** | present | the horizon |  |  |  |  | clear *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **rise** | present · progressive | clouds |  |  | the air |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in air=Location |
| 4 | **vex** | to-infinitive | clouds *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus we=Experiencer |

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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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