---
title: “Yes, yes, yes!” stammered the poor Smith, scarcely knowing what he… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “Yes, yes, yes!” stammered the poor Smith, scarcely knowing what he said. Who acts: poor Smith, Smith. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Recipe, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Recipe, sentence 31

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“Yes, yes, yes!” stammered the poor Smith, scarcely knowing what he said.

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**Who acts:** poor Smith, Smith · **What happens:** stammer, know, say · **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 (poor Smith, Smith), 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:pg66819:9:31
# text = “Yes, yes, yes!” stammered the poor Smith, scarcely knowing what he said.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	9	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	2	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	2	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
9	stammered	stammer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	Smith	Smith	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	obj	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stammer** *speech: other* | past | the poor Smith |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **know** | gerund | the poor Smith *not said here* |  |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Smith |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

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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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