---
title: Accordingly a sailor was sent up to the masthead to try to catch a s… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Accordingly a sailor was sent up to the masthead to try to catch a sight of land, and reported that nothing was to be seen but the sea and sky, except a huge mass of blackness that lay astern. Who acts: huge mass. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 11, wi
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 11, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Accordingly a sailor was sent up to the masthead to try to catch a sight of land, and reported that nothing was to be seen but the sea and sky, except a huge mass of blackness that lay astern.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** huge mass · **What happens:** send up, try, catch, report, see, lie · **To what, where:** sailor, masthead, sight, nothing, land

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (huge mass), 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:pg128:11:19
# text = Accordingly a sailor was sent up to the masthead to try to catch a sight of land, and reported that nothing was to be seen but the sea and sky, except a huge mass of blackness that lay astern.
1	Accordingly	accordingly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sailor	sailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	up	up	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	masthead	masthead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	reported	report	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
22	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	ccomp	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	except	except	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	mass	mass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	blackness	blackness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
39	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	40	nsubj	_	_
40	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	acl:relcl	_	_
41	astern	astern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send up** | past · passive |  | a sailor |  | the masthead |  | accordingly *property* | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to masthead=Destination |
| 2 | **try** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **catch** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | a sight of land |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Theme |
| 4 | **report** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-2 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **see** | past · passive |  | nothing |  |  |  | except a huge mass of blackness | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |
| 6 | **lie** | past | a huge mass of blackness |  |  |  |  | astern *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **sight** |  |  | land |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition 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.

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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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