---
title: The stories in the Fairy Books have generally been such as old women… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The stories in the Fairy Books have generally been such as old women in country places tell to their grandchildren. Who acts: stories, old women. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 1, sentence 10

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The stories in the Fairy Books have generally been such as old women in country places tell to their grandchildren.

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**Who acts:** stories, old women · **What happens:** have, be, tell · **To what, where:** grandchildren · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stories, old women), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg128:1:10
# text = The stories in the Fairy Books have generally been such as old women in country places tell to their grandchildren.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	Fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	Books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
7	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	generally	generally	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	cop	_	_
10	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|ExtPos=ADP	7	xcomp	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
17	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	grandchildren	grandchild	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | the stories in the Fairy Books |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | participle | the stories in the Fairy Books *not said here* |  |  |  |  | generally, such *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | old women in country places |  | women's grandchildren |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent to grandchild=Recipient |

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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 Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 128 (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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