---
title: Pushing back the heavy ebony doors we entered the courtyard, but upo… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Pushing back the heavy ebony doors we entered the courtyard, but upon the threshold of the great hall beyond it we paused, frozen with horror, at the sight which greeted us. Who acts: heavy ebony doors, we, sight. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 15, wi
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/15/3/)

<!-- 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/) / 3

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 15, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Pushing back the heavy ebony doors we entered the courtyard, but upon the threshold of the great hall beyond it we paused, frozen with horror, at the sight which greeted us.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** heavy ebony doors, we, sight · **What happens:** push back, enter, pause, freeze, greet · **To what, where:** courtyard, threshold, sight, us

<!-- .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 (heavy ebony doors, we, sight), 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:pg128:15:3
# text = Pushing back the heavy ebony doors we entered the courtyard, but upon the threshold of the great hall beyond it we paused, frozen with horror, at the sight which greeted us.
1	Pushing	push	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	csubj	_	_
2	back	back	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	ebony	ebony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	doors	door	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
7	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	entered	enter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	courtyard	courtyard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
13	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	threshold	threshold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
20	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nmod	_	_
22	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	paused	pause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	frozen	freeze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	advcl	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	horror	horror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
32	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj	_	_
33	greeted	greet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	_
34	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **push back** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **enter** | past | the heavy ebony doors | the courtyard |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme courtyard=Destination |
| 3 | **pause** | past | we |  |  | the threshold of the great hall beyond hall |  |  | vn linger-53.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon threshold=Location |
| 4 | **freeze** | participle | we *not said here* |  |  | the sight |  | with horror | vn weather-57 «It V PP.theme»: with horror=Theme |
| 5 | **greet** *speech: greet* | past | the sight |  | us |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Theme |

<!-- .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 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/15/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/15/4/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/15/)