---
title: Then, sitting by the pleasant fireside, the Minstrel answered him by… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Then, sitting by the pleasant fireside, the Minstrel answered him by telling a story—a story as old as the race of man on earth. Who acts: Minstrel, man. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Graybeard and His Son, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Graybeard and His Son, sentence 167

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Then, sitting by the pleasant fireside, the Minstrel answered him by telling a story—a story as old as the race of man on earth.

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**Who acts:** Minstrel, man · **What happens:** sit, answer, tell, race · **To what, where:** Graybeard, story · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Graybeard and His Son. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Minstrel, man), 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:pg66819:4:167
# text = Then, sitting by the pleasant fireside, the Minstrel answered him by telling a story—a story as old as the race of man on earth.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	advcl	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	pleasant	pleasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	fireside	fireside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	appos	_	_
20	as	as	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
22	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	race	race	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | gerund | the Minstrel *not said here* |  |  |  | then | by the pleasant fireside | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by fireside=Location |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the Minstrel |  | Graybeard |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | the Minstrel *not said here* | a story |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient |
| 4 | **race** |  | man on earth |  |  |  |  |  | nom race «event intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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