---
title: I was about to fall on my knees and thank the princess but she did n… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: I was about to fall on my knees and thank the princess but she did not give me time. Who acts: I, princess. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 10, sentence 96

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I was about to fall on my knees and thank the princess but she did not give me time.

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**Who acts:** I, princess · **What happens:** be, fall, thank, not give · **To what, where:** knees, princess, me

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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 (I, princess), 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:pg128:10:96
# text = I was about to fall on my knees and thank the princess but she did not give me time.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	thank	thank	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | I |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fall** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  | my knees |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on knee=Location |
| 3 | **thank** *speech: thank* | present | I *not said here* |  | the princess |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent princess=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **give** | past · do-support | princess |  | me |  | time |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |

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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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