---
title: He could scarcely say a word in answer; he could hardly lift his eye… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: He could scarcely say a word in answer; he could hardly lift his eyes; his hands hung as though palsied at his side; his feet were rooted to the floor. Who acts: Ilmarinen, hands. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Recipe, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Recipe, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He could scarcely say a word in answer; he could hardly lift his eyes; his hands hung as though palsied at his side; his feet were rooted to the floor.

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**Who acts:** Ilmarinen, hands · **What happens:** say, lift, hang, palsy, root · **To what, where:** word, answer, eyes, side, feet · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Recipe. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ilmarinen, hands), 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:pg66819:9:24
# text = He could scarcely say a word in answer; he could hardly lift his eyes; his hands hung as though palsied at his side; his feet were rooted to the floor.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	lift	lift	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	hung	hang	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
20	as	as	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
21	though	though	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	palsied	palsy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	xcomp	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
29	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	rooted	root	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	conj	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | could | Ilmarinen | a word |  | answer |  | scarcely *property* | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent word=Theme in answer=Manner |
| 2 | **lift** | could | Ilmarinen | Ilmarinen's eyes |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Theme |
| 3 | **hang** | past | Ilmarinen's hands |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **palsy** | participle | Ilmarinen's hands *not said here* |  |  | Ilmarinen's side |  | though *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **root** | past · passive |  | Ilmarinen's feet |  |  |  | to the floor | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |

<!-- .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.

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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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