---
title: So every evening he married a fresh wife and had her strangled the f… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: So every evening he married a fresh wife and had her strangled the following morning before the grand-vizir, whose duty it was to provide these unhappy brides for the Sultan. Who acts: Schahriar, wife, world. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1, with its
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 1, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So every evening he married a fresh wife and had her strangled the following morning before the grand-vizir, whose duty it was to provide these unhappy brides for the Sultan.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Schahriar, wife, world · **What happens:** marry, have, strangle, follow, be · **To what, where:** fresh wife

<!-- .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 (Schahriar, wife, world), 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:pg128:1:52
# text = So every evening he married a fresh wife and had her strangled the following morning before the grand-vizir, whose duty it was to provide these unhappy brides for the Sultan.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	det	_	_
3	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	married	marry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	fresh	fresh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	strangled	strangle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	following	follow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	amod	_	_
15	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
16	before	before	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	grand	grand	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	vizir	vizir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	duty	duty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	appos	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	provide	provide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl:relcl	_	_
28	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	30	det	_	_
29	unhappy	unhappy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	brides	bride	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
31	for	for	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **marry** | past | Schahriar | a fresh wife |  |  | evening |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wife=Patient |
| 2 | **have** | past | Schahriar *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **strangle** | past | wife |  |  |  | before the grand vizir; morning |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **follow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | world |  |  |  |  | provide *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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