---
title: “He is an ancient friend of mine, dear as a brother, precious as a f… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “He is an ancient friend of mine, dear as a brother, precious as a father. Who acts: man. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Tempest, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Tempest, sentence 46

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“He is an ancient friend of mine, dear as a brother, precious as a father.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** ancient friend

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Tempest. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg66819:8:46
# text = “He is an ancient friend of mine, dear as a brother, precious as a father.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	ancient	ancient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	mine	my	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	appos	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | man | a ancient friend |  |  |  | of the Smith *= smith* | 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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