---
title: The stories must have been told in their present shape a good long w… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The stories must have been told in their present shape a good long while after the Caliph died, when nobody knew very exactly what had really happened. Who acts: Caliph, nobody. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/1/27/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Arabian Nights Entertainments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/) / [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/1/) / 27

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 1, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The stories must have been told in their present shape a good long while after the Caliph died, when nobody knew very exactly what had really happened.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Caliph, nobody · **What happens:** tell, die, know, happen · **To what, where:** stories, present shape · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (Caliph, nobody), 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:pg128:1:27
# text = The stories must have been told in their present shape a good long while after the Caliph died, when nobody knew very exactly what had really happened.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	present	present	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	shape	shape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	reparandum	_	_
13	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	ccomp	_	_
14	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
15	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Caliph	Caliph	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
21	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	22	nsubj	_	_
22	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
23	very	very	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	28	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	really	really	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | must · perfect · passive |  | the stories |  | Caliph's present shape |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **die** | past | the Caliph |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **know** | past | nobody |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **happen** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/1/26/)
- next →: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/1/28/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/1/)