---
title: Scarcely had they finished their ill-omened repast, when the air abo… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Scarcely had they finished their ill-omened repast, when the air above us was darkened by two mighty shadows. Who acts: Scarcely, merchants, two mighty shadows. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/16/87/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 16, sentence 87

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Scarcely had they finished their ill-omened repast, when the air above us was darkened by two mighty shadows.

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**Who acts:** Scarcely, merchants, two mighty shadows · **What happens:** have, finish, omen, darken · **To what, where:** ill omened repast, air

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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 (Scarcely, merchants, two mighty shadows), 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:pg128:16:87
# text = Scarcely had they finished their ill-omened repast, when the air above us was darkened by two mighty shadows.
1	Scarcely	Scarcely	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	finished	finish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
6	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	omened	omen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	amod	_	_
9	repast	repast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	17	mark	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	above	above	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nmod	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	darkened	darken	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl:relcl	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
20	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	shadows	shadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Scarcely |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **finish** | past | merchants *= merchant* | merchants's ill omened repast |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality repast=Eventuality |
| 3 | **omen** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **darken** | past · passive | two mighty shadows | the air above us |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |

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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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