---
title: A feeble ray of light shone into the cavern through some chink, and… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: A feeble ray of light shone into the cavern through some chink, and when I had the courage to look about me I could see that I was in a vast vault, bestrewn with bones and bodies of the dead. Who acts: feeble ray, I. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 16,
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 16, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A feeble ray of light shone into the cavern through some chink, and when I had the courage to look about me I could see that I was in a vast vault, bestrewn with bones and bodies of the dead.

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**Who acts:** feeble ray, I · **What happens:** shine, have, look, see, be, ray · **To what, where:** feeble ray, cavern, courage, vast vault, light · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (feeble ray, 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:pg128:16:54
# text = A feeble ray of light shone into the cavern through some chink, and when I had the courage to look about me I could see that I was in a vast vault, bestrewn with bones and bodies of the dead.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	feeble	feeble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	ray	ray	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	shone	shine	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
7	into	into	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	cavern	cavern	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	through	through	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	12	det	_	_
12	chink	chink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	courage	courage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl	_	_
22	about	about	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	vast	vast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	vault	vault	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	bestrewn	bestrewn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	_
36	with	with	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nmod	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	bodies	body	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	conj	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shine** | participle |  | a feeble ray of light *not said here* |  | the cavern |  | through some chink | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through chink=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | a feeble ray of light | the courage |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent courage=Patient |
| 3 | **look** | to-infinitive | a feeble ray of light *not said here* | the courage *not said here* |  |  |  | about me | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent about i=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | could | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | past | I |  |  | a vast vault and bestrewn with bones and bodies of the dead |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **ray** |  |  | light |  |  |  |  | nom ray «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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