---
title: There he saw an old woman resting on a couch, while another woman wa… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: There he saw an old woman resting on a couch, while another woman was spinning by the fire. Who acts: Minstrel, old woman, woman. 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 of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Graybeard and His Son, sentence 19

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There he saw an old woman resting on a couch, while another woman was spinning by the fire.

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**Who acts:** Minstrel, old woman, woman · **What happens:** see, rest, spin · **To what, where:** old woman, couch

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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, old woman, woman), 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:pg66819:4:19
# text = There he saw an old woman resting on a couch, while another woman was spinning by the fire.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	resting	rest	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	couch	couch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
14	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | Minstrel | a old woman |  | there |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer woman=Stimulus |
| 2 | **rest** | gerund | a old woman *not said here* |  |  | a couch |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on couch=Location |
| 3 | **spin** | past · progressive | another woman |  |  |  |  | by the fire | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme by fire=Trajectory |

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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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