---
title: The mountain formed the seaward boundary of a large island, and the… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The mountain formed the seaward boundary of a large island, and the narrow strip of rocky shore upon which we stood was strewn with the wreckage of a thousand gallant ships, while the bones of the luckless mariners shone white in the sunshine, and we shuddered to think how soon our own would be adde
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/17/44/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Arabian Nights Entertainments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/) / [Opening, part 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/17/) / 44

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 17, sentence 44

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The mountain formed the seaward boundary of a large island, and the narrow strip of rocky shore upon which we stood was strewn with the wreckage of a thousand gallant ships, while the bones of the luckless mariners shone white in the sunshine, and we shuddered to think how soon our own would be added to the heap.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mountain, we, bones · **What happens:** form, stand, strewn, shine, shudder, think · **To what, where:** seaward boundary, rocky shore, narrow strip, sunshine

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mountain, we, bones), 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:pg128:17:44
# text = The mountain formed the seaward boundary of a large island, and the narrow strip of rocky shore upon which we stood was strewn with the wreckage of a thousand gallant ships, while the bones of the luckless mariners shone white in the sunshine, and we shuddered to think how soon our own would be added to the heap.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	formed	form	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	seaward	seaward	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	boundary	boundary	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	strip	strip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	rocky	rocky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	obl	_	_
21	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	strewn	strewn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	wreckage	wreckage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	nummod	_	_
31	gallant	gallant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
34	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	nsubj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	luckless	luckless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	mariners	mariner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nmod	_	_
41	shone	shine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	parataxis	_	_
42	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	xcomp	_	_
43	in	in	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	sunshine	sunshine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
48	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
49	shuddered	shudder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	58	advcl	_	_
50	to	to	PART	TO	_	51	mark	_	_
51	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	49	xcomp	_	_
52	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	53	advmod	_	_
53	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	51	advmod	_	_
54	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	55	nmod:poss	_	_
55	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	obl	_	_
56	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	58	aux	_	_
57	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	58	aux:pass	_	_
58	added	add	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
59	to	to	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
60	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
61	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **form** | past | the mountain | the seaward boundary of a large island |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location boundary=Theme |
| 2 | **stand** | past | we |  |  | rocky shore |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon which=Location |
| 3 | **strewn** | past · passive |  | the narrow strip of rocky shore |  |  |  | with the wreckage of thousand gallant ships | tree rules |
| 4 | **shine** | past | the bones of the luckless mariners |  |  | the sunshine |  | white *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sunshine=Location |
| 5 | **shudder** | past | we |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **add** *speech: assert* | would · passive |  |  |  |  |  | to the heap | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle PP»: to heap=Co-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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/17/43/)
- next →: [sentence 45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/17/45/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/17/)