---
title: The rhinoceros fights with the elephant, and transfixing him with hi… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The rhinoceros fights with the elephant, and transfixing him with his horn carries him off upon his head, but becoming blinded with the blood of his enemy, he falls helpless to the ground, and then comes the roc, and clutches them both up in his talons and takes them to feed his young. Who acts: rhi
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 14, sentence 59

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The rhinoceros fights with the elephant, and transfixing him with his horn carries him off upon his head, but becoming blinded with the blood of his enemy, he falls helpless to the ground, and then comes the roc, and clutches them both up in his talons and takes them to feed his young.

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**Who acts:** rhinoceros, transfixing, elephant · **What happens:** fight, transfix, carry off, blind, fall, come · **To what, where:** elephant, roc, lines, talons, young

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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 (rhinoceros, transfixing, elephant), 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:pg128:14:59
# text = The rhinoceros fights with the elephant, and transfixing him with his horn carries him off upon his head, but becoming blinded with the blood of his enemy, he falls helpless to the ground, and then comes the roc, and clutches them both up in his talons and takes them to feed his young.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	rhinoceros	rhinoceros	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	fights	fight	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
9	transfixing	transfix	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	csubj	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	horn	horn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	carries	carry	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	off	off	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
17	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	becoming	become	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	blinded	blind	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	parataxis	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	falls	fall	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
33	helpless	helpless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	xcomp	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
39	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	40	advmod	_	_
40	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	roc	roc	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	clutches	clutch	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
46	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	obj	_	_
47	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	45	obj	_	_
48	up	up	ADP	RP	_	45	compound:prt	_	_
49	in	in	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
50	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	51	nmod:poss	_	_
51	talons	talon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	obl	_	_
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
53	takes	take	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	45	conj	_	_
54	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	obj	_	_
55	to	to	PART	TO	_	56	mark	_	_
56	feed	feed	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	53	advcl	_	_
57	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	58	nmod:poss	_	_
58	young	young	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fight** | present | the rhinoceros |  |  |  |  | with the elephant | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with elephant=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **transfix** | gerund |  | elephant |  |  |  | with elephant's horn | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 3 | **carry off** | present | transfixing | elephant |  |  |  | upon elephant's head | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **blind** | gerund · passive |  |  |  |  |  | with the blood of elephant's enemy | tree rules |
| 5 | **fall** | present | elephant |  |  |  |  | to the ground; helpless *property* | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to ground=Theme |
| 6 | **come** | present | the rhinoceros *not said here* | the roc |  |  | then |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location roc=Theme |
| 7 | **clutch up** | present |  | lines *= line* |  | elephant's talons |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **take** | present |  | lines *= line* |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 9 | **feed** | to-infinitive |  | elephant's young |  |  |  |  | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent young=Recipient |

<!-- .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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