---
title: When you are on the ground cut the skin with the knife and throw it… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: When you are on the ground cut the skin with the knife and throw it off. Who acts: you, ground. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 12, sentence 36

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When you are on the ground cut the skin with the knife and throw it off.

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**Who acts:** you, ground · **What happens:** be, cut, throw off · **To what, where:** ground, skin

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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 (you, ground), 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:pg128:12:36
# text = When you are on the ground cut the skin with the knife and throw it off.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	off	off	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | you |  |  | the ground |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **cut** | past | the ground | the skin |  |  |  | with the knife | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skin=Patient with knife=Instrument |
| 3 | **throw off** | infinitive | the ground *not said here* | skin |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

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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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