---
title: But alas! morning light showed us our enemy approaching us, supporte… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: But alas! morning light showed us our enemy approaching us, supported on either hand by two giants nearly as large and fearful as himself, while a crowd of others followed close upon their heels. Who acts: alas, enemy. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 15, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But alas! morning light showed us our enemy approaching us, supported on either hand by two giants nearly as large and fearful as himself, while a crowd of others followed close upon their heels.

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**Who acts:** alas, enemy · **What happens:** show, approach, support, follow · **To what, where:** us, hand, crowd, heels · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (alas, enemy), 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:pg128:15:31
# text = But alas! morning light showed us our enemy approaching us, supported on either hand by two giants nearly as large and fearful as himself, while a crowd of others followed close upon their heels.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	alas	ala	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
4	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
6	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	_
8	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	ccomp	_	_
11	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	supported	support	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	advcl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	either	either	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
19	giants	giant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl:agent	_	_
20	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
21	as	as	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	fearful	fearful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	conj	_	_
25	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
28	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	crowd	crowd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nmod	_	_
33	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	advcl	_	_
34	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	33	advmod	_	_
35	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	heels	heel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **show** | past | alas and morning light |  | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent we=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **approach** | gerund | our enemy | us |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Theme |
| 3 | **support** | participle | our enemy *not said here* |  |  | either hand |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **follow** | participle · passive |  | a crowd of others |  | alas's heels |  | close *property* | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme upon heel=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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