---
title: Your friend, the Minstrel, although he was able to do many very wond… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Your friend, the Minstrel, although he was able to do many very wonderful things, would not undertake a task so difficult.” Who acts: various, friend. 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 44

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Your friend, the Minstrel, although he was able to do many very wonderful things, would not undertake a task so difficult.”

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**Who acts:** various, friend · **What happens:** be, do, not undertake · **To what, where:** many wonderful things, task

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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 (various, friend), 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:pg66819:9:44
# text = Your friend, the Minstrel, although he was able to do many very wonderful things, would not undertake a task so difficult.”
1	Your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Minstrel	Minstrel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
14	very	very	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	undertake	undertake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | various |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | to-infinitive | various *not said here* | many wonderful things |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 3 | **not** **undertake** | would | Your friend | a task |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent task=Eventuality |

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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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