---
title: After a vain search he fumbled about till he found the door, and fle… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: After a vain search he fumbled about till he found the door, and fled out of it howling frightfully. Who acts: number. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 15, sentence 28

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After a vain search he fumbled about till he found the door, and fled out of it howling frightfully.

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**Who acts:** number · **What happens:** fumble, find, flee, howl · **To what, where:** door, search

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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 (number), 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:pg128:15:28
# text = After a vain search he fumbled about till he found the door, and fled out of it howling frightfully.
1	After	after	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	search	search	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	fumbled	fumble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	about	about	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
16	out	out	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	_
19	howling	howl	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
20	frightfully	frightfully	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fumble** | past | number |  |  |  | after a vain search | about *property* | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **find** | past | number | the door |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent door=Topic |
| 3 | **flee** | past | number *not said here* |  |  | search |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme out it=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **howl** | gerund | number *not said here* |  |  |  |  | frightfully *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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