---
title: The air was sharp and biting; the frost lay thick on the hilltops an… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: The air was sharp and biting; the frost lay thick on the hilltops and the barren moorland; patches of newly formed ice glared white in the marshes. Who acts: air, frost, patches. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Tree of Magic, with its dependency tree a
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Tree of Magic, sentence 5

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The air was sharp and biting; the frost lay thick on the hilltops and the barren moorland; patches of newly formed ice glared white in the marshes.

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**Who acts:** air, frost, patches · **What happens:** be, bite, lay, form, glare · **To what, where:** hilltops, marshes

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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 (air, frost, patches), 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:pg66819:6:5
# text = The air was sharp and biting; the frost lay thick on the hilltops and the barren moorland; patches of newly formed ice glared white in the marshes.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	biting	bite	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	frost	frost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
11	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	hilltops	hilltop	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	barren	barren	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	moorland	moorland	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
20	patches	patch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	newly	newly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	formed	form	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
24	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
25	glared	glare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
26	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	marshes	marsh	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	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 air |  |  |  |  | sharp *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **bite** | gerund | the air *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lay** | present | the frost |  |  | the hilltops and the barren moorland |  | thick *property* | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on hilltop=Destination |
| 4 | **form** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | newly *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **glare** | past | patches of formed ice |  |  | the marshes |  | white *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in marsh=Location |

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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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