---
title: Whatever befalls me I cannot forbear asking, `Why you daub your face… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Whatever befalls me I cannot forbear asking, `Why you daub your faces with black, and how it is you are all blind of one eye?'" Who acts: Whatever, I, you, wit. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 12, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whatever befalls me I cannot forbear asking, \`Why you daub your faces with black, and how it is you are all blind of one eye?'"

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**Who acts:** Whatever, I, you, wit · **What happens:** befall, not forbear, ask, daub, be · **To what, where:** me, faces

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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 (Whatever, I, you, wit), 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:pg128:12:24
# text = Whatever befalls me I cannot forbear asking, `Why you daub your faces with black, and how it is you are all blind of one eye?'"
1	Whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	2	nsubj	_	_
2	befalls	befall	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	forbear	forbear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
8	asking	ask	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	`	`	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	daub	daub	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
14	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	faces	face	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
20	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	all	all	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	blind	blind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
29	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **befall** | present | Whatever | me |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **forbear** | can | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **daub** | present | you | your faces |  |  |  | with black | vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent face=Destination with black=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | present | wit |  |  |  |  | of one eye; all, blind *property* | 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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