---
title: The words were scarcely out of my mouth when the boat and man sank f… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The words were scarcely out of my mouth when the boat and man sank from beneath me, and left me floating on the surface. Who acts: words, boat. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/11/43/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 11, sentence 43

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The words were scarcely out of my mouth when the boat and man sank from beneath me, and left me floating on the surface.

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**Who acts:** words, boat · **What happens:** be, sink, leave, float · **To what, where:** mouth, me, surface

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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 (words, boat), 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:pg128:11:43
# text = The words were scarcely out of my mouth when the boat and man sank from beneath me, and left me floating on the surface.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
4	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
5	out	out	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
14	sank	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
15	from	from	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	floating	float	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	xcomp	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the words |  |  | my mouth |  | scarcely *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **sink** | past | the boat and man |  |  |  |  | from me | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **leave** | past | the words *not said here* |  | me |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **float** | gerund | the words *not said here* |  |  | the surface |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on surface=Trajectory |

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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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