---
title: Like a dark stormcloud in the depth of winter, obscuring the sky and… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Like a dark stormcloud in the depth of winter, obscuring the sky and overshadowing the earth, she hovered midway between the blue heavens and the boundless sea, eagerly looking for the prey which had wellnigh escaped her. Who acts: Mistress, prey, wellnigh. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Fate of the Sampo, sentence 25

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Like a dark stormcloud in the depth of winter, obscuring the sky and overshadowing the earth, she hovered midway between the blue heavens and the boundless sea, eagerly looking for the prey which had wellnigh escaped her.

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**Who acts:** Mistress, prey, wellnigh · **What happens:** obscure, overshadow, hover, look, have, escape · **To what, where:** sky, earth, midway, Mistress

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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 (Mistress, prey, wellnigh), 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:pg66819:38:25
# text = Like a dark stormcloud in the depth of winter, obscuring the sky and overshadowing the earth, she hovered midway between the blue heavens and the boundless sea, eagerly looking for the prey which had wellnigh escaped her.
1	Like	like	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	stormcloud	stormcloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	depth	depth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	obscuring	obscure	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	appos	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	overshadowing	overshadow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	hovered	hover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	midway	midway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	between	between	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	heavens	heaven	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	boundless	boundless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	eagerly	eagerly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	compound	_	_
32	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	prey	prey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
36	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	37	nsubj	_	_
37	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	acl:relcl	_	_
38	wellnigh	wellnigh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nsubj	_	_
39	escaped	escape	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	ccomp	_	_
40	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **obscure** | gerund |  | the sky |  |  |  |  | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent sky=Patient |
| 2 | **overshadow** | gerund |  | the earth |  |  |  |  | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent earth=Patient |
| 3 | **hover** | past | Mistress | midway and the boundless sea |  |  |  | like a dark stormcloud in the depth of winter; between the blue heavens | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location midway=Theme |
| 4 | **look** | gerund | Mistress *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the prey | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for prey=Theme |
| 5 | **have** | past | the prey |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **escape** | past | wellnigh | Mistress |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme she=Initial\_Location |

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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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