---
title: “If my friend, the Smith, will not be persuaded, I will prevail upon… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “If my friend, the Smith, will not be persuaded, I will prevail upon him through other means.” Who acts: Minstrel, other. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Tree of Magic, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/6/38/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old No…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/) / [The Tree of Magic](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/6/) / 38

# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Tree of Magic, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“If my friend, the Smith, will not be persuaded, I will prevail upon him through other means.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Minstrel, other · **What happens:** not persuade, prevail, mean · **To what, where:** friend

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Tree of Magic. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Minstrel, other), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66819:6:38
# text = “If my friend, the Smith, will not be persuaded, I will prevail upon him through other means.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
3	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Smith	Smith	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	persuaded	persuade	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	prevail	prevail	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
17	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	through	through	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	nsubj	_	_
21	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **persuade** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | future · passive |  | my friend |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **prevail** *in a quote* | future | the Minstrel *= minstrel* |  |  |  |  | upon friend | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon he=Location |
| 3 | **mean** *in a quote* | present | other |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/6/37/)
- next →: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/6/39/)
- ↑ back to [The Tree of Magic](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/6/)