---
title: There were no novels then, nor any printed books, of course; but the… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: There were no novels then, nor any printed books, of course; but there were people whose profession it was to amuse men and women by telling tales. Who acts: novels, people, profession. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 1, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There were no novels then, nor any printed books, of course; but there were people whose profession it was to amuse men and women by telling tales.

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**Who acts:** novels, people, profession · **What happens:** be, print, tell · **To what, where:** tales · **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 (novels, people, profession), 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:pg128:1:22
# text = There were no novels then, nor any printed books, of course; but there were people whose profession it was to amuse men and women by telling tales.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	novels	novel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
5	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	10	cc	_	_
8	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	det	_	_
9	printed	print	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	amod	_	_
10	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADV	10	advmod	_	_
13	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	17	expl	_	_
17	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
18	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
19	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	profession	profession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	amuse	amuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	acl:relcl	_	_
25	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	_
28	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
29	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
30	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no novels |  |  | there | then |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **print** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **be** | past | people  people  people's profession's profession |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | profession |  |  |  |  | amuse *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | profession *not said here* | tales |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient |

<!-- .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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