---
title: "It would be an excellent thing to do," returned the grand-vizir, "b… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "It would be an excellent thing to do," returned the grand-vizir, "but how do you propose to accomplish it?" Who acts: practice, you. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/1/64/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Arabian Nights Entertainments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/) / [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/1/) / 64

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 1, sentence 64

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"It would be an excellent thing to do," returned the grand-vizir, "but how do you propose to accomplish it?"

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** practice, you · **What happens:** be, do, return, propose, accomplish · **To what, where:** excellent thing, grand vizir, practice

<!-- .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 (practice, you), 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:pg128:1:64
# text = "It would be an excellent thing to do," returned the grand-vizir, "but how do you propose to accomplish it?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	excellent	excellent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	_
12	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	grand	grand	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	vizir	vizir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
21	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	propose	propose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	accomplish	accomplish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | would | practice | a excellent thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **return** | past | practice *not said here* | the grand vizir |  |  |  |  | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vizir=Theme |
| 4 | **propose** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **accomplish** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | practice |  |  |  |  | vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/1/63/)
- next →: [sentence 65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/1/65/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/1/)