---
title: Though we were many and our enemy was alone it did not occur to us t… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Though we were many and our enemy was alone it did not occur to us to kill him, and indeed we should have found that a hard task, even if we had thought of it, and no plan could we devise to deliver ourselves. Who acts: we, enemy, plan. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lan
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/15/14/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Arabian Nights Entertainments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/) / [Opening, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/15/) / 14

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 15, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Though we were many and our enemy was alone it did not occur to us to kill him, and indeed we should have found that a hard task, even if we had thought of it, and no plan could we devise to deliver ourselves.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we, enemy, plan · **What happens:** be, not be, kill, find, think, devise · **To what, where:** us, giant, many, hard task, ourselves · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, enemy, plan), 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:pg128:15:14
# text = Though we were many and our enemy was alone it did not occur to us to kill him, and indeed we should have found that a hard task, even if we had thought of it, and no plan could we devise to deliver ourselves.
1	Though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
6	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
9	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	occur	occur	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
22	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux	_	_
25	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	even	even	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
32	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
33	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	29	acl:relcl	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
40	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	41	det	_	_
41	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nsubj	_	_
42	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	44	aux	_	_
43	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
44	devise	devise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	ccomp	_	_
45	to	to	PART	TO	_	46	mark	_	_
46	deliver	deliver	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	xcomp	_	_
47	ourselves	ourselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	46	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | we |  |  |  |  | many *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past · do-support | our enemy |  | us |  |  | occur *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **kill** | to-infinitive | our enemy *not said here* | giant |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **find** | should · perfect · passive |  | many |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | we | a hard task *not said here* |  |  |  | of enemy | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent task=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 6 | **devise** | could | no plan |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **deliver** | to-infinitive | no plan *not said here* | ourselves |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ourselves=Patient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/15/13/)
- next →: [sentence 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/15/15/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/15/)