---
title: But alas! all these pieces were small, and he searched in vain for a… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: But alas! all these pieces were small, and he searched in vain for any trace of the precious pictured cover. Who acts: alas, treasure. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Fate of the Sampo, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Fate of the Sampo, sentence 104

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But alas! all these pieces were small, and he searched in vain for any trace of the precious pictured cover.

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**Who acts:** alas, treasure · **What happens:** be, search, picture · **To what, where:** vain

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Fate of the Sampo. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (alas, treasure), 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:pg66819:38:104
# text = But alas! all these pieces were small, and he searched in vain for any trace of the precious pictured cover.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	2	cc	_	_
2	alas	ala	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
4	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	6	det:predet	_	_
5	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	searched	search	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	obl	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
17	trace	trace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	pictured	picture	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	amod	_	_
22	cover	cover	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | alas |  |  |  |  | all pieces *nsubj*; small *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **search** | past | treasure |  |  | vain |  | for any trace of the precious pictured cover | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.theme NP.location»: agent=Agent in vain=Location for trace=Theme |
| 3 | **picture** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=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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