---
title: I rose and saluted them, and they spoke to me in return, but I could… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: I rose and saluted them, and they spoke to me in return, but I could not understand a word of their language. Who acts: I, eyes. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/17/62/)

<!-- 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/) / 62

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 17, sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I rose and saluted them, and they spoke to me in return, but I could not understand a word of their language.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, eyes · **What happens:** rise, salute, speak, not understand, word · **To what, where:** eyes, me, return, word, language · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (I, eyes), 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:pg128:17:62
# text = I rose and saluted them, and they spoke to me in return, but I could not understand a word of their language.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	saluted	salute	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rise** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **salute** | past | I *not said here* | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  | vn curtsey-40.3.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Topic |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | eyes *= eye* |  | me | return |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to i=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **not** **understand** | could | I | a word of eyes's language |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus |
| 5 | **word** |  |  | eyes's language |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication 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.

<!-- 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 61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/17/61/)
- next →: [sentence 63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/17/63/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/17/)