---
title: The door was open, and the Minstrel saw a little child sitting on th… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: The door was open, and the Minstrel saw a little child sitting on the hearth beside the blazing fire. Who acts: door, Minstrel, little child. 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 cl
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Graybeard and His Son, sentence 7

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The door was open, and the Minstrel saw a little child sitting on the hearth beside the blazing fire.

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**Who acts:** door, Minstrel, little child · **What happens:** be, see, sit, blaze · **To what, where:** little child, hearth

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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 (door, Minstrel, little child), 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:pg66819:4:7
# text = The door was open, and the Minstrel saw a little child sitting on the hearth beside the blazing fire.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	acl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	hearth	hearth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	blazing	blaze	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	amod	_	_
20	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the door |  |  |  |  | open *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | past | the Minstrel | a little child |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer child=Stimulus |
| 3 | **sit** | gerund | a little child *not said here* |  |  | the hearth |  | beside the blazing fire | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on hearth=Location |
| 4 | **blaze** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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