---
title: “First tell me,” said the Minstrel feebly, “tell me if you can stop… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “First tell me,” said the Minstrel feebly, “tell me if you can stop this flow of blood and heal this wound of Iron.” Who acts: you, Minstrel, blood. 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 e
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Graybeard and His Son, sentence 41

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“First tell me,” said the Minstrel feebly, “tell me if you can stop this flow of blood and heal this wound of Iron.”

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**Who acts:** you, Minstrel, blood · **What happens:** tell, say, stop, heal, flow, wound · **To what, where:** Minstrel, elder, flow, wound, Iron · **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 (you, Minstrel, blood), 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:pg66819:4:41
# text = “First tell me,” said the Minstrel feebly, “tell me if you can stop this flow of blood and heal this wound of Iron.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	First	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	3	advmod	_	_
3	tell	tell	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
10	feebly	feebly	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	tell	tell	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
19	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	flow	flow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	heal	heal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
25	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
26	wound	wound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	Iron	Iron	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | imperative | you *not said here* |  | the Minstrel *= minstrel* |  |  | first *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Minstrel |  |  |  |  | feebly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* |  | the elder of the two *= elder* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 4 | **stop** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | can | you | this flow of blood |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector flow=Eventuality |
| 5 | **heal** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* | this wound of Iron |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent wound=Patient |
| 6 | **flow** *in a quote* |  | blood |  |  |  |  |  | nom flow «event intransitive»: of=agent |
| 7 | **wound** *in a quote* |  |  | Iron |  |  |  |  | nom wound «state transitive»: of=patient |

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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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