---
title: He listened; he could no longer hear the whirring of the wheels or t… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: He listened; he could no longer hear the whirring of the wheels or the busy clacking of the pictured cover. Who acts: spirit, wheels. 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 3

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He listened; he could no longer hear the whirring of the wheels or the busy clacking of the pictured cover.

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**Who acts:** spirit, wheels · **What happens:** listen, hear, clack, picture, whir · **To what, where:** whirring

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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 (spirit, wheels), 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:pg66819:37:3
# text = He listened; he could no longer hear the whirring of the wheels or the busy clacking of the pictured cover.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
6	no	no	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	8	advmod	_	_
8	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	whirring	whirring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	wheels	wheel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
17	clacking	clack	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	pictured	picture	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	amod	_	_
21	cover	cover	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** | past | spirit |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hear** | could | spirit | the whirring of the wheels |  |  |  | long *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer whirring=Stimulus |
| 3 | **clack** | gerund | spirit *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of the pictured cover | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **picture** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **whir** |  | the wheels |  |  |  |  |  | nom whirring «event intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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