---
title: Now the Sultan Schahriar had a wife whom he loved more than all the… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Now the Sultan Schahriar had a wife whom he loved more than all the world, and his greatest happiness was to surround her with splendour, and to give her the finest dresses and the most beautiful jewels. Who acts: Sultan Schahriar, Schahriar, greatest happiness. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Ent
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 1, sentence 49

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Now the Sultan Schahriar had a wife whom he loved more than all the world, and his greatest happiness was to surround her with splendour, and to give her the finest dresses and the most beautiful jewels.

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**Who acts:** Sultan Schahriar, Schahriar, greatest happiness · **What happens:** have, love, be, give · **To what, where:** wife, finest dresses

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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 (Sultan Schahriar, Schahriar, greatest happiness), 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:pg128:1:49
# text = Now the Sultan Schahriar had a wife whom he loved more than all the world, and his greatest happiness was to surround her with splendour, and to give her the finest dresses and the most beautiful jewels.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	Schahriar	Schahriar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	obj	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	loved	love	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	10	obj	_	_
12	than	than	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	greatest	great	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	20	amod	_	_
20	happiness	happiness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	surround	surround	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	splendour	splendour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
31	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	iobj	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	finest	fine	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	34	amod	_	_
34	dresses	dress	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
37	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	38	advmod	_	_
38	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	jewels	jewel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the Sultan Schahriar | a wife |  |  | now |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wife=Patient |
| 2 | **love** | past | Schahriar | a wife |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | Schahriar's greatest happiness |  |  |  |  | with splendour; surround *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **give** | to-infinitive | Schahriar's greatest happiness *not said here* | the finest dresses and the beautiful jewels | wife |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient dress=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.

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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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