---
title: Then lighting a fire upon the ground they hacked morsels from the bi… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Then lighting a fire upon the ground they hacked morsels from the bird, and proceeded to roast them while I stood by aghast. Who acts: merchants, I. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 16, sentence 86

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Then lighting a fire upon the ground they hacked morsels from the bird, and proceeded to roast them while I stood by aghast.

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**Who acts:** merchants, I · **What happens:** light, hack, proceed, roast, stand · **To what, where:** fire, morsels, merchants

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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 (merchants, 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:pg128:16:86
# text = Then lighting a fire upon the ground they hacked morsels from the bird, and proceeded to roast them while I stood by aghast.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	lighting	light	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	hacked	hack	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	morsels	morsel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	proceeded	proceed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	roast	roast	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	aghast	aghast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **light** | gerund | merchants *= merchant* *not said here* | a fire |  |  | then |  | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fire=Product |
| 2 | **hack** | past | merchants *= merchant* | morsels |  |  |  | upon the ground; from the bird | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP.product PP.material»: agent=Agent morsel=Product from bird=Material |
| 3 | **proceed** | past | merchants *= merchant* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **roast** | to-infinitive | merchants *= merchant* *not said here* | merchants *= merchant* |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 5 | **stand** | past | I |  |  |  |  | by aghast | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by aghast=Location |

<!-- .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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