---
title: While I was still staring at it, there came towards me a tall old ma… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: While I was still staring at it, there came towards me a tall old man, accompanied by ten young men, all handsome, and all blind of the right eye. Who acts: I, tall old man. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 12, sentence 8

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While I was still staring at it, there came towards me a tall old man, accompanied by ten young men, all handsome, and all blind of the right eye.

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**Who acts:** I, tall old man · **What happens:** stare, come, accompany · **To what, where:** tall old man

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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 (I, tall old man), 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:pg128:12:8
# text = While I was still staring at it, there came towards me a tall old man, accompanied by ten young men, all handsome, and all blind of the right eye.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	still	still	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	staring	stare	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
9	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	10	expl	_	_
10	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	accompanied	accompany	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
21	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	det	_	_
25	handsome	handsome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	29	det	_	_
29	blind	blind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stare** | past · progressive | I |  |  |  | still | at haste | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at it=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past | a tall old man |  |  | there |  | towards me | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme towards i=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **accompany** | participle |  | a tall old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=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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