---
title: My dismay was great, for it seemed to me that to be buried alive was… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: My dismay was great, for it seemed to me that to be buried alive was even a worse fate than to be devoured by cannibals, nevertheless there was no escape. Who acts: dismay, it, cannibals, escape. 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 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
My dismay was great, for it seemed to me that to be buried alive was even a worse fate than to be devoured by cannibals, nevertheless there was no escape.

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**Who acts:** dismay, it, cannibals, escape, My · **What happens:** be, seem, bury, devour, dismay · **To what, where:** great worse fate

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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 (dismay, it, cannibals, escape), 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:pg128:16:48
# text = My dismay was great, for it seemed to me that to be buried alive was even a worse fate than to be devoured by cannibals, nevertheless there was no escape.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	dismay	dismay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	xcomp	_	_
11	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	nmod:unmarked	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	buried	bury	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	advcl	_	_
15	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
17	even	even	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	20	amod	_	_
20	fate	fate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
21	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	devoured	devour	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	advcl	_	_
25	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	cannibals	cannibal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	nevertheless	nevertheless	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	30	expl	_	_
30	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	parataxis	_	_
31	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	32	det	_	_
32	escape	escape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | My dismay |  |  |  |  | great *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **seem** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **bury** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  | alive *property* | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP» |
| 4 | **is a** | past |  | a great worse fate |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **devour** | to-infinitive · passive | cannibals |  |  |  |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **be** | past | no escape |  |  | there |  | nevertheless *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **dismay** |  | My |  |  |  |  |  | nom dismay «feeling transitive»: poss=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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