---
title: This sight gave me great pleasure, but my delight was speedily dampe… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: This sight gave me great pleasure, but my delight was speedily damped when I saw also numbers of horrible snakes so long and so large that the smallest of them could have swallowed an elephant with ease. Who acts: sight, I, my. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Openin
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 14, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
This sight gave me great pleasure, but my delight was speedily damped when I saw also numbers of horrible snakes so long and so large that the smallest of them could have swallowed an elephant with ease.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sight, I, my · **What happens:** give, damp, see, swallow, delight · **To what, where:** great pleasure, me, delight, numbers, smallest

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (sight, I, my), 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:pg128:14:30
# text = This sight gave me great pleasure, but my delight was speedily damped when I saw also numbers of horrible snakes so long and so large that the smallest of them could have swallowed an elephant with ease.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	delight	delight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
12	speedily	speedily	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	damped	damp	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
17	also	also	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	numbers	number	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	horrible	horrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	snakes	snake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	smallest	small	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	34	nsubj:pass	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nmod	_	_
32	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	aux	_	_
34	swallowed	swallow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	advcl	_	_
35	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	with	with	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	ease	ease	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | this sight | great pleasure | me |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient pleasure=Theme |
| 2 | **damp** | past · passive |  | my delight |  |  |  | speedily *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **see** | past | I | numbers of horrible snakes |  |  |  | long *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer number=Stimulus |
| 4 | **swallow** | could · perfect · passive |  | the smallest of numbers |  |  |  | with ease | tree rules |
| 5 | **delight** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom delight «feeling intransitive»: poss=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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