---
title: I had always thought that the stories the sailors told of the famous… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: I had always thought that the stories the sailors told of the famous valley of diamonds, and of the cunning way which some merchants had devised for getting at the precious stones, were mere travellers' tales invented to give pleasure to the hearers, but now I perceived that they were surely true. W
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 14, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I had always thought that the stories the sailors told of the famous valley of diamonds, and of the cunning way which some merchants had devised for getting at the precious stones, were mere travellers' tales invented to give pleasure to the hearers, but now I perceived that they were surely true.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, stories, tales, mere travellers · **What happens:** think, tell, devise, get, be, invent · **To what, where:** merchants, precious stones, tales, pleasure, hearers · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, stories, tales, mere travellers), 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:pg128:14:36
# text = I had always thought that the stories the sailors told of the famous valley of diamonds, and of the cunning way which some merchants had devised for getting at the precious stones, were mere travellers' tales invented to give pleasure to the hearers, but now I perceived that they were surely true.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	4	advmod	_	_
4	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sailors	sailor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
10	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	famous	famous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	valley	valley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	diamonds	diamond	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	cunning	cunning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	obj	_	_
24	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
25	merchants	merchant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	devised	devise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl:relcl	_	_
28	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
29	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
36	mere	mere	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	travellers	traveller	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	'	's	PART	POS	_	37	case	_	_
39	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	_
40	invented	invent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	39	acl	_	_
41	to	to	PART	TO	_	42	mark	_	_
42	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	xcomp	_	_
43	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
44	to	to	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	hearers	hearer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
48	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
49	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	51	advmod	_	_
50	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	51	nsubj	_	_
51	perceived	perceive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
52	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	56	mark	_	_
53	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	56	nsubj	_	_
54	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	56	cop	_	_
55	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	56	advmod	_	_
56	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past · perfect | I |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the stories and the sailors |  |  |  |  | of the famous valley of diamonds | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **devise** | past · perfect · passive |  | some merchants |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **get** | gerund |  |  |  | the precious stones |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **be** | past | mere travellers's tales |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **invent** | participle |  | mere travellers's tales *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **give** | to-infinitive |  | pleasure | the hearers |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent pleasure=Theme to hearer=Recipient |
| 8 | **perceive** | past | I |  |  |  | now |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 9 | **is** | past | tales *= tale* |  |  |  |  | surely, true *property* | tree rules |
| 10 | **tell** |  | mere travellers |  |  |  |  |  | nom tale «communication 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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