---
title: If only my wife's little finger ached I fancied she was going to die… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: If only my wife's little finger ached I fancied she was going to die, and sure enough before very long she fell really ill and in a few days breathed her last. Who acts: little finger, I, finger. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 16, with its dependency 
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 16, sentence 47

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If only my wife's little finger ached I fancied she was going to die, and sure enough before very long she fell really ill and in a few days breathed her last.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little finger, I, finger · **What happens:** ache, fancy, go, die, fall, breathe · **To what, where:** last

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little finger, I, finger), 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:pg128:16:47
# text = If only my wife's little finger ached I fancied she was going to die, and sure enough before very long she fell really ill and in a few days breathed her last.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
2	only	only	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
3	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	ached	ache	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	fancied	fancy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	ccomp	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
19	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	very	very	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	advmod	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	ccomp	_	_
25	really	really	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	xcomp	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	_
32	breathed	breathe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
33	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ache** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | my wife's little finger |  |  |  |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **fancy** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **go** | past · progressive | finger |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **die** | to-infinitive | finger *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **fall** | past | finger |  |  |  |  | ill, long *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **breathe** | past | finger *not said here* | finger's last |  |  | day |  | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent last=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.

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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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