---
title: Then he grasped the Minstrel’s knee just above the place where the w… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he grasped the Minstrel’s knee just above the place where the wicked axe had struck it. Who acts: wound. 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 72

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Then he grasped the Minstrel’s knee just above the place where the wicked axe had struck it.

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**Who acts:** wound · **What happens:** grasp, strike · **To what, where:** knee, place, wicked axe

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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 (wound), 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:pg66819:4:72
# text = Then he grasped the Minstrel’s knee just above the place where the wicked axe had struck it.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	grasped	grasp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’s	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	knee	knee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
8	just	just	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
9	above	above	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
12	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	17	advmod	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	struck	strike	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl:relcl	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grasp** | past | wound | the Minstrel's knee |  | the place | then |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer knee=Stimulus |
| 2 | **strike** | past · perfect · passive |  | the wicked axe |  |  |  | knee *obj* | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP ADJP»: subject=Patient it=Result |

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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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