---
title: In the middle of the island they stopped, and after digging some tim… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: In the middle of the island they stopped, and after digging some time, lifted up what seemed to be a trapdoor. Who acts: islands. 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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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 11, sentence 51

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In the middle of the island they stopped, and after digging some time, lifted up what seemed to be a trapdoor.

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**Who acts:** islands · **What happens:** stop, dig, lift up, seem, be · **To what, where:** middle, trapdoor

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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 (islands), 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:pg128:11:51
# text = In the middle of the island they stopped, and after digging some time, lifted up what seemed to be a trapdoor.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
11	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	digging	dig	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
13	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
14	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
16	lifted	lift	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	nsubj	_	_
19	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	trapdoor	trapdoor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | past | islands *= island* |  |  | the middle of the island |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in middle=Location |
| 2 | **dig** | gerund |  |  |  |  | time |  | vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lift up** | participle | islands *= island* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **seem** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | a trapdoor |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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