---
title: There was a moment of breathless suspense, then one bird loosed its… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: There was a moment of breathless suspense, then one bird loosed its hold and the huge block of stone hurtled through the air, but thanks to the presence of mind of the helmsman, who turned our ship violently in another direction, it fell into the sea close beside us, cleaving it asunder till we coul
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 16, sentence 91

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was a moment of breathless suspense, then one bird loosed its hold and the huge block of stone hurtled through the air, but thanks to the presence of mind of the helmsman, who turned our ship violently in another direction, it fell into the sea close beside us, cleaving it asunder till we could nearly see the bottom.

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**Who acts:** moment, one bird, helmsman, bird, we · **What happens:** be, loose, hurtle, turn, fall, cleave · **To what, where:** hold, huge block, air, ship, thanks, sea

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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 (moment, one bird, helmsman, bird), 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:pg128:16:91
# text = There was a moment of breathless suspense, then one bird loosed its hold and the huge block of stone hurtled through the air, but thanks to the presence of mind of the helmsman, who turned our ship violently in another direction, it fell into the sea close beside us, cleaving it asunder till we could nearly see the bottom.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	breathless	breathless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	suspense	suspense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	advmod	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	loosed	loose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
13	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	block	block	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
21	hurtled	hurtle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
22	through	through	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
27	thanks	thanks	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl:unmarked	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	presence	presence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	helmsman	helmsman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	38	nsubj	_	_
38	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	acl:relcl	_	_
39	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
41	violently	violently	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	44	det	_	_
44	direction	direction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
46	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
47	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
48	into	into	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
51	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	xcomp	_	_
52	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
53	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	51	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
55	cleaving	cleave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	47	advcl	_	_
56	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	55	obj	_	_
57	asunder	asunder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	obj	_	_
58	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	62	mark	_	_
59	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	62	nsubj	_	_
60	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	62	aux	_	_
61	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	62	advmod	_	_
62	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	55	advcl	_	_
63	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	64	det	_	_
64	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	62	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a moment of breathless suspense |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **loose** | past | one bird | bird's hold and the huge block of stone |  |  | then |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent hold=Patient |
| 3 | **hurtle** | participle |  | the huge block of stone *not said here* |  | the air |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through air=Trajectory |
| 4 | **turn** | past | the helmsman | our ship |  |  |  | in another direction; violently *property* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent ship=Patient in direction=Topic |
| 5 | **fall** | past | bird | thanks to the presence of mind of the helmsman |  |  |  | into the sea *result*; close *property* | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into sea=Result |
| 6 | **cleave** | gerund | bird *not said here* | bird |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent it=Patient asunder=Result |
| 7 | **see** | could | we | the bottom |  |  |  | nearly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bottom=Stimulus |
| 8 | **hold** |  | bird |  |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: poss=agent |
| 9 | **mind** |  |  | the helmsman |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition 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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