---
title: I listened to his story with an inward laugh as to the absurdity of… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: I listened to his story with an inward laugh as to the absurdity of my ever wishing to cause the death of this harmless boy, whom I hastened to assure of my friendship and even of my protection; begging him, in return, to convey me in his father's ship to my own country. Who acts: I, my, harmless bo
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 11, sentence 72

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I listened to his story with an inward laugh as to the absurdity of my ever wishing to cause the death of this harmless boy, whom I hastened to assure of my friendship and even of my protection; begging him, in return, to convey me in his father's ship to my own country.

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**Who acts:** I, my, harmless boy · **What happens:** listen, wish, cause, hasten, assure, beg · **To what, where:** absurdity, death, harmless boy, Agib, return, me

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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 (I, my, harmless boy), 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:pg128:11:72
# text = I listened to his story with an inward laugh as to the absurdity of my ever wishing to cause the death of this harmless boy, whom I hastened to assure of my friendship and even of my protection; begging him, in return, to convey me in his father's ship to my own country.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	inward	inward	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	laugh	laugh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	13	case	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	fixed	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	absurdity	absurdity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
14	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	17	advmod	_	_
17	wishing	wish	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	acl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	cause	cause	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	det	_	_
24	harmless	harmless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	obj	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	hastened	hasten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	assure	assure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	friendship	friendship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
36	even	even	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	protection	protection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
41	begging	beg	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
42	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
44	in	in	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
45	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
47	to	to	PART	TO	_	48	mark	_	_
48	convey	convey	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	conj	_	_
49	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	48	obj	_	_
50	in	in	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
51	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
52	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	's	's	PART	POS	_	52	case	_	_
54	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	_
55	to	to	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
56	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	58	nmod:poss	_	_
57	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	58	amod	_	_
58	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** | past | I |  |  |  |  | to Agib's story; with a inward laugh; as the absurdity | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to story=Theme |
| 2 | **wish** | gerund | my | the absurdity *not said here* |  |  | ever |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **cause** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | my *not said here* | the death of this harmless boy |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition death=Patient |
| 4 | **hasten** | past | I | this harmless boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **assure** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of my friendship and my protection | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent of friendship=Topic |
| 6 | **beg** *speech: request* | gerund |  |  | Agib | return |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 7 | **convey** | to-infinitive |  | me | my own country | Agib's father's ship |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Topic to country=Recipient |
| 8 | **die** |  | this harmless boy |  |  |  |  |  | nom death «event intransitive»: of=agent |
| 9 | **protect** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom protection «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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