---
title: When I had looked about me I began to doubt if I had gained anything… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: When I had looked about me I began to doubt if I had gained anything by quitting the desolate island. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 14, sentence 27

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When I had looked about me I began to doubt if I had gained anything by quitting the desolate island.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** look, begin, doubt, gain, quit, desolate · **To what, where:** anything, desolate island

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg128:14:27
# text = When I had looked about me I began to doubt if I had gained anything by quitting the desolate island.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	looked	look	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
5	about	about	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	doubt	doubt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	gained	gain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	ccomp	_	_
15	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	14	obj	_	_
16	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	quitting	quit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	desolate	desolate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	compound	_	_
20	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past · perfect | I |  |  |  |  | about me | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent about i=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **doubt** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **gain** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | I | anything |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Theme |
| 5 | **quit** | gerund |  | the desolate island |  |  |  |  | vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent island=Source |
| 6 | **desolate** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | 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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