---
title: Grown-up people were then very fond of fairy tales, and they thought… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Grown-up people were then very fond of fairy tales, and they thought these Arab stories the best that they had ever read. Who acts: Grown people, People. 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 33

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Grown-up people were then very fond of fairy tales, and they thought these Arab stories the best that they had ever read.

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**Who acts:** Grown people, People · **What happens:** grow up, be, think, read · **To what, where:** Arab stories

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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 (Grown people, People), 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:pg128:1:33
# text = Grown-up people were then very fond of fairy tales, and they thought these Arab stories the best that they had ever read.
1	Grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	up	up	ADP	RP	_	1	compound:prt	_	_
4	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
16	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
17	Arab	Arab	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	ccomp	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	25	advmod	_	_
25	read	read	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow up** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | Grown people |  |  |  | then | of fairy tales; fond *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | People | this Arab stories |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot story=Theme |
| 4 | **read** | past · perfect | People |  |  |  | ever |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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