---
title: In an instant there was a dreadful crash, a sound of breaking timber… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: In an instant there was a dreadful crash, a sound of breaking timbers, of grinding ice, of shouts and groans and despairing cries. 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 9

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In an instant there was a dreadful crash, a sound of breaking timbers, of grinding ice, of shouts and groans and despairing cries.

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**What happens:** be, break, grind, shout, groan, despair · **To what, where:** dreadful crash, instant, cries

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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: 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:pg66819:38:9
# text = In an instant there was a dreadful crash, a sound of breaking timbers, of grinding ice, of shouts and groans and despairing cries.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	dreadful	dreadful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	crash	crash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	breaking	break	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	amod	_	_
14	timbers	timber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	grinding	grind	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	amod	_	_
18	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	shouts	shout	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	groans	groan	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	despairing	despair	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	conj	_	_
26	cries	cry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a dreadful crash and a sound of breaking timbers and grinding ice |  | a instant |  | a sound of breaking timbers *conj*; grinding ice *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **break** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **grind** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **shout** *speech: express* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **groan** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **despair** | gerund |  | cries |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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