---
title: Showers of sparks flew from him, snapping, burning, threatening; and… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Showers of sparks flew from him, snapping, burning, threatening; and from among them sprang swords and spears and battle-axes, and daggers keen and pointed. Who acts: Showers. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Wicked Hornet, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Wicked Hornet, sentence 117

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Showers of sparks flew from him, snapping, burning, threatening; and from among them sprang swords and spears and battle-axes, and daggers keen and pointed.

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**Who acts:** Showers · **What happens:** fly, snap, burn, threaten, spring, dagger · **To what, where:** swords

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Wicked Hornet. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Showers), 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:pg66819:5:117
# text = Showers of sparks flew from him, snapping, burning, threatening; and from among them sprang swords and spears and battle-axes, and daggers keen and pointed.
1	Showers	shower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	sparks	spark	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nmod	_	_
4	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	snapping	snap	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	threatening	threaten	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	from	from	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	among	among	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
18	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
19	swords	sword	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	spears	spear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	conj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	axes	ax	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	daggers	dagger	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
29	keen	keen	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	pointed	pointed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | Showers of sparks |  |  |  |  | from insect | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from he=Trajectory |
| 2 | **snap** | gerund | Showers of sparks *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **burn** | gerund | Showers of sparks *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **threaten** | gerund | Showers of sparks *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **spring** | past | Showers of sparks *not said here* | swords and spears and battle axes |  |  |  | from Showers *= shower* | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location sword=Theme |
| 6 | **dagger** | present | Showers of sparks *not said here* |  |  |  |  | keen *property* | tree rules |

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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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