---
title: Hector's little boy may have heard them in Troy Town, for it is cert… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Hector's little boy may have heard them in Troy Town, for it is certain that Homer knew them, and that some of them were written down in Egypt about the time of Moses. Who acts: little boy, it, Homer. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1, with its depende
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 1, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Hector's little boy may have heard them in Troy Town, for it is certain that Homer knew them, and that some of them were written down in Egypt about the time of Moses.

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**Who acts:** little boy, it, Homer · **What happens:** hear, be, know, write down · **To what, where:** women, Troy Town, some, Egypt

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (little boy, it, Homer), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg128:1:13
# text = Hector's little boy may have heard them in Troy Town, for it is certain that Homer knew them, and that some of them were written down in Egypt about the time of Moses.
1	Hector	hector	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	's	PART	POS	_	1	case	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux	_	_
7	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	Troy	Troy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	Town	Town	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	Homer	Homer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
24	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nmod	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	advcl	_	_
29	down	down	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
32	about	about	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | may · perfect | Hector's little boy | women *= woman* |  | Troy Town |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | present | it |  |  |  |  | certain *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **know** | past | Homer | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 4 | **write down** | past · passive |  | some |  | Egypt | time |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in egypt=Destination |

<!-- .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 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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