---
title: If the Sultan was to order me to plunge a dagger in your heart, I sh… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: If the Sultan was to order me to plunge a dagger in your heart, I should have to obey. Who acts: Sultan, I. 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 72

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If the Sultan was to order me to plunge a dagger in your heart, I should have to obey.

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**Who acts:** Sultan, I · **What happens:** order, plunge, have, obey · **To what, where:** me, dagger

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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, I), 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:pg128:1:72
# text = If the Sultan was to order me to plunge a dagger in your heart, I should have to obey.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	order	order	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	plunge	plunge	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	dagger	dagger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	obey	obey	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **order** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the Sultan |  | me |  |  |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **plunge** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the Sultan *not said here* | a dagger |  |  |  | in your heart | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute NP.extent PP.source PP.goal»: agent=Patient dagger=Extent in heart=Attribute |
| 3 | **have** | should | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **obey** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: 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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