---
title: In a few minutes the roc appeared, and bore me off to the top of the… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: In a few minutes the roc appeared, and bore me off to the top of the mountain in his huge claws as lightly as if I had been a feather, for this great white bird is so strong that he has been known to carry even an elephant to his nest in the hills. Who acts: roc, I. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/12/41/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Arabian Nights Entertainments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/) / [Opening, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/12/) / 41

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 12, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In a few minutes the roc appeared, and bore me off to the top of the mountain in his huge claws as lightly as if I had been a feather, for this great white bird is so strong that he has been known to carry even an elephant to his nest in the hills.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** roc, I · **What happens:** appear, bear off, be, know, carry · **To what, where:** me, huge claws, feather, roc, elephant, hills

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (roc, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg128:12:41
# text = In a few minutes the roc appeared, and bore me off to the top of the mountain in his huge claws as lightly as if I had been a feather, for this great white bird is so strong that he has been known to carry even an elephant to his nest in the hills.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	roc	roc	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	bore	bear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
11	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	off	off	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
23	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	31	cc	_	_
24	lightly	lightly	ADV	RB	_	23	fixed	_	_
25	as	as	ADP	IN	_	23	fixed	_	_
26	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
29	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	31	cop	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	feather	feather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	37	nsubj	_	_
35	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
36	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	_
38	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	40	cop	_	_
39	so	so	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
41	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
42	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj:pass	_	_
43	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	45	aux	_	_
44	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	45	aux:pass	_	_
45	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	40	advcl	_	_
46	to	to	PART	TO	_	47	mark	_	_
47	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	xcomp	_	_
48	even	even	ADV	RB	_	50	advmod	_	_
49	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obj	_	_
51	to	to	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	53	nmod:poss	_	_
53	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
54	in	in	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	hills	hill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **appear** | past | the roc |  |  |  | minute |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **bear off** | past | the roc *not said here* | me |  | roc's huge claws |  | to the top of the mountain | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 3 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | I | a feather |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | present | the roc *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for great white bird; strong *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **know** | present · perfect · passive |  | roc |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **carry** | to-infinitive |  | a elephant |  | the hills |  | to roc's nest | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent elephant=Theme to nest=Destination |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/12/40/)
- next →: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/12/42/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/12/)