---
title: Though they chattered incessantly I could not understand a word they… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Though they chattered incessantly I could not understand a word they said, nor did they heed when I spoke to them. Who acts: blacks, I. 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 88

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Though they chattered incessantly I could not understand a word they said, nor did they heed when I spoke to them.

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**Who acts:** blacks, I · **What happens:** chatter, not understand, say, heed, speak · **To what, where:** word, blacks · **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 (blacks, I), 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:pg128:15:88
# text = Though they chattered incessantly I could not understand a word they said, nor did they heed when I spoke to them.
1	Though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	chattered	chatter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
4	incessantly	incessantly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	17	cc	_	_
15	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	heed	heed	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **chatter** | past | blacks *= black* |  |  |  |  | incessantly *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **understand** | could | I | a word |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | blacks *= black* | a word *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **heed** | past · do-support | blacks *= black* |  |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | I |  | blacks *= black* |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to they=Co-Agent |

<!-- .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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