---
title: As none of the sofas could hold more than one person, they bade me p… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: As none of the sofas could hold more than one person, they bade me place myself on the carpet, and to ask no questions about anything I should see. Who acts: none, sofas, I. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/12/13/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 12, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As none of the sofas could hold more than one person, they bade me place myself on the carpet, and to ask no questions about anything I should see.

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**Who acts:** none, sofas, I · **What happens:** hold, bade, ask, see · **To what, where:** one person, me, carpet, questions

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (none, sofas, I), 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:pg128:12:13
# text = As none of the sofas could hold more than one person, they bade me place myself on the carpet, and to ask no questions about anything I should see.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
2	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	7	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	sofas	sofa	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
8	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	10	advmod	_	_
9	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	fixed	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	bade	bade	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	nmod:unmarked	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	carpet	carpet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
25	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	26	det	_	_
26	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
27	about	about	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	26	nmod	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | could | none | one person |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent person=Theme |
| 2 | **bade** | past | sofas *= sofa* | me |  | the carpet |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive |  | no questions |  |  |  | about anything | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent question=Recipient about anything=Topic |
| 4 | **see** | should | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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