---
title: The giants, seeing their prey escaping them, seized up huge pieces o… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The giants, seeing their prey escaping them, seized up huge pieces of rock, and wading into the water hurled them after us with such good aim that all the rafts except the one I was upon were swamped, and their luckless crews drowned, without our being able to do anything to help them. Who acts: gia
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 15, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The giants, seeing their prey escaping them, seized up huge pieces of rock, and wading into the water hurled them after us with such good aim that all the rafts except the one I was upon were swamped, and their luckless crews drowned, without our being able to do anything to help them.

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**Who acts:** giants, prey, wading, luckless crews · **What happens:** see, escape, seize up, wade, hurl, swamp · **To what, where:** prey, rafts, huge pieces, water, anything

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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 (giants, prey, wading, luckless crews), 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:pg128:15:33
# text = The giants, seeing their prey escaping them, seized up huge pieces of rock, and wading into the water hurled them after us with such good aim that all the rafts except the one I was upon were swamped, and their luckless crews drowned, without our being able to do anything to help them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	giants	giant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	prey	prey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	escaping	escape	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
10	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	up	up	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	wading	wade	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	csubj	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	hurled	hurl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	after	after	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
28	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	aim	aim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
31	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	33	det:predet	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	rafts	raft	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	nsubj:pass	_	_
34	except	except	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	_
37	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
39	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	36	acl:relcl	_	_
40	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	aux:pass	_	_
41	swamped	swamp	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
44	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
45	luckless	luckless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
46	crews	crew	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	nsubj	_	_
47	drowned	drown	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
49	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	52	mark	_	_
50	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
51	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	52	cop	_	_
52	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	advcl	_	_
53	to	to	PART	TO	_	54	mark	_	_
54	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	52	xcomp	_	_
55	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	54	obj	_	_
56	to	to	PART	TO	_	57	mark	_	_
57	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	54	advcl	_	_
58	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	57	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | gerund | the giants *not said here* | rafts's prey |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer prey=Stimulus |
| 2 | **escape** | gerund | rafts's prey *not said here* | rafts *= raft* |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme they=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **seize up** | past | the giants | huge pieces of rock |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent piece=Theme |
| 4 | **wade** | gerund |  |  |  | the water |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into water=Destination |
| 5 | **hurl** | past | wading | rafts *= raft* |  |  | after us | with such good aim | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 6 | **swamp** | past · passive |  | all rafts except the one |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **drown** | past | rafts's luckless crews |  |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **is** | gerund | rafts's luckless crews *not said here* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **do** | to-infinitive | rafts's luckless crews *not said here* | anything |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality |
| 10 | **help** | to-infinitive | rafts's luckless crews *not said here* | rafts *= raft* |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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