---
title: If he only makes a mess of the paper, you may be sure I will punish… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: If he only makes a mess of the paper, you may be sure I will punish him for it. Who acts: man, you, I. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 10, 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/pg128/10/18/)

<!-- 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 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/10/) / 18

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 10, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If he only makes a mess of the paper, you may be sure I will punish him for it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, you, I · **What happens:** make, be, punish, mess · **To what, where:** mess, man, paper

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, you, I), 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:pg128:10:18
# text = If he only makes a mess of the paper, you may be sure I will punish him for it.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	mess	mess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	cop	_	_
14	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	punish	punish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | man | a mess of the paper |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mess=Product |
| 2 | **is** | may | you |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **punish** | future | I | man |  |  |  | for paper | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent he=Patient for it=Theme |
| 4 | **mess** |  |  | the paper |  |  |  |  | nom mess «state transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/10/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/10/19/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/10/)