---
title: The blow was so heavy that his mind almost gave way, and he declared… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The blow was so heavy that his mind almost gave way, and he declared that he was quite sure that at bottom all women were as wicked as the sultana, if you could only find them out, and that the fewer the world contained the better. Who acts: blow, mind, Schahriar, women. A sentence of «The Arabian N
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 1, sentence 51

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The blow was so heavy that his mind almost gave way, and he declared that he was quite sure that at bottom all women were as wicked as the sultana, if you could only find them out, and that the fewer the world contained the better.

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**Who acts:** blow, mind, Schahriar, women, you, world · **What happens:** be, give, declare, find out, contain, mind · **To what, where:** way, women, better

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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 (blow, mind, Schahriar, women), 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:pg128:1:51
# text = The blow was so heavy that his mind almost gave way, and he declared that he was quite sure that at bottom all women were as wicked as the sultana, if you could only find them out, and that the fewer the world contained the better.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
11	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	declared	declare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	advcl	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	ccomp	_	_
24	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	det	_	_
25	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
26	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	as	as	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	ccomp	_	_
29	as	as	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	sultana	sultana	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
33	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
34	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
35	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
36	only	only	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	parataxis	_	_
38	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	_
39	out	out	ADP	RP	_	37	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
42	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	fewer	few	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	47	advmod	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nsubj	_	_
47	contained	contain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
49	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	47	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the blow |  |  |  |  | heavy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **give** | past | Schahriar's mind | way |  |  |  | almost *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Theme |
| 3 | **declare** *speech: other* | past | Schahriar |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | Schahriar |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past | all women |  |  |  |  | as the sultana; wicked *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **find out** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | you | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Topic |
| 7 | **contain** | past | the world | the better |  |  |  |  | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot good=Theme |
| 8 | **mind** |  | Schahriar |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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