---
title: He climbed the mast to its splintered top, and there he stood, balan… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: He climbed the mast to its splintered top, and there he stood, balanced on one foot, unmoved and unafraid, as though on solid ground. Who acts: cloud. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/37/31/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old No…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/) / [The Pursuit](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/37/) / 31

# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Pursuit, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He climbed the mast to its splintered top, and there he stood, balanced on one foot, unmoved and unafraid, as though on solid ground.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** cloud · **What happens:** climb, splinter, stand, balance · **To what, where:** mast, one foot

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (cloud), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66819:37:31
# text = He climbed the mast to its splintered top, and there he stood, balanced on one foot, unmoved and unafraid, as though on solid ground.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	climbed	climb	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	mast	mast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	splintered	splinter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	amod	_	_
8	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	13	expl	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	balanced	balance	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	unmoved	unmoved	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	unafraid	unafraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	though	though	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	solid	solid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **climb** | past | cloud | the mast |  |  |  | to mast's splintered top *result* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V NP.extent PP.source PP.goal»: agent=Patient mast=Extent to top=Result |
| 2 | **splinter** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **stand** | past | cloud |  |  | there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **balance** | participle | cloud *not said here* |  |  | one foot |  | as solid ground | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on foot=Location |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/37/30/)
- next →: [sentence 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/37/32/)
- ↑ back to [The Pursuit](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/37/)