---
title: It might have grown till it touched the stars had not the Minstrel b… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: It might have grown till it touched the stars had not the Minstrel bidden it to cease expanding. Who acts: twig. 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.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Tree of Magic, sentence 49

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It might have grown till it touched the stars had not the Minstrel bidden it to cease expanding.

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**Who acts:** twig · **What happens:** grow, touch, bid, cease, expand · **To what, where:** stars

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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 (twig), 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:pg66819:6:49
# text = It might have grown till it touched the stars had not the Minstrel bidden it to cease expanding.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux	_	_
4	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	stars	star	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obl:unmarked	_	_
14	bidden	bid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	ccomp	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	cease	cease	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
18	expanding	expand	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | might · perfect | twig |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **touch** | past | twig |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **bid** | past · perfect · passive |  | the stars |  |  |  | the Minstrel *obl:unmarked*; twig *obj* | tree rules |
| 4 | **cease** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **expand** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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