---
title: At last some storyteller thought of writing down the tales, and fixi… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: At last some storyteller thought of writing down the tales, and fixing them into a kind of framework, as if they had all been narrated to a cruel Sultan by his wife. Who acts: last storyteller, wife. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1, with its dependen
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 1, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At last some storyteller thought of writing down the tales, and fixing them into a kind of framework, as if they had all been narrated to a cruel Sultan by his wife.

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**Who acts:** last storyteller, wife · **What happens:** think, fix, narrate · **To what, where:** Caliph, cruel Sultan

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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 (last storyteller, wife), 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:pg128:1:28
# text = At last some storyteller thought of writing down the tales, and fixing them into a kind of framework, as if they had all been narrated to a cruel Sultan by his wife.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	det	_	_
4	storyteller	storyteller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
8	down	down	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	fixing	fix	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	advcl	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	framework	framework	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
21	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
22	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
25	all	all	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
26	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	narrated	narrate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	cruel	cruel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
32	by	by	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | some last storyteller |  |  |  |  | of writing; down the tales | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **fix** | gerund | some last storyteller *not said here* | Caliph |  |  |  | into a kind of framework | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent they=Patient into kind=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **narrate** *speech: other* *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect · passive | storyteller's wife | Caliph | a cruel Sultan |  |  | all *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent subject=Topic to sultan=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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