---
title: The porter, who had often heard people speak of the immense wealth o… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The porter, who had often heard people speak of the immense wealth of Sindbad, could not help feeling envious of one whose lot seemed to be as happy as his own was miserable. Who acts: porter, people, lot. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 13, with its d
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 13, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The porter, who had often heard people speak of the immense wealth of Sindbad, could not help feeling envious of one whose lot seemed to be as happy as his own was miserable.

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**Who acts:** porter, people, lot · **What happens:** hear, speak, not help, feel, seem, be · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (porter, people, lot), 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:pg128:13:11
# text = The porter, who had often heard people speak of the immense wealth of Sindbad, could not help feeling envious of one whose lot seemed to be as happy as his own was miserable.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	often	often	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	acl:relcl	_	_
8	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	speak	speak	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	immense	immense	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	wealth	wealth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	Sindbad	Sindbad	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
20	feeling	feel	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	xcomp	_	_
21	envious	envious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	obl	_	_
24	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	lot	lot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
28	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	cop	_	_
29	as	as	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	xcomp	_	_
31	as	as	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	obl	_	_
34	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
35	miserable	miserable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past · perfect | the porter |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | present | people |  |  |  |  | of the immense wealth of Sindbad | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **help** | could | the porter |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **feel** *not said to happen* | gerund | the porter *not said here* |  |  |  |  | envious *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **seem** | past | lot |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | to-infinitive | lot *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as Sindbad's own; happy *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **is** | past | lot *not said here* |  |  |  |  | miserable *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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