---
title: And I see dark specks hovering over it—they must be falcons or nesti… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: And I see dark specks hovering over it—they must be falcons or nesting ravens flying among the birch trees.” Who acts: I, dark specks, specks, falcons. 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 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And I see dark specks hovering over it—they must be falcons or nesting ravens flying among the birch trees.”

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**Who acts:** I, dark specks, specks, falcons · **What happens:** see, hover, be, nest, fly · **To what, where:** dark specks, patience, falcons, birch trees

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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 (I, dark specks, specks, falcons), 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:pg66819:37:45
# text = And I see dark specks hovering over it—they must be falcons or nesting ravens flying among the birch trees.”
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	specks	speck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	hovering	hover	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	over	over	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	cop	_	_
13	falcons	falcon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	nesting	nest	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	amod	_	_
16	ravens	raven	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
17	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	acl	_	_
18	among	among	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	birch	birch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | present | I | dark specks |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer speck=Stimulus |
| 2 | **hover** | gerund | dark specks *not said here* |  |  | patience |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over it=Location |
| 3 | **is a** | must | specks *= speck* | falcons or nesting ravens |  |  |  | nesting ravens *conj* | tree rules |
| 4 | **nest** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn berry-13.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **fly** | gerund | falcons or nesting ravens *not said here* |  |  | the birch trees |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme among tree=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.

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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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