---
title: They were lost in wonder at my tale when it was interpreted to them,… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: They were lost in wonder at my tale when it was interpreted to them, and said that adventures so surprising must be related to their king only by the man to whom they had happened. Who acts: adventures, eyes, my. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 17, wit
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 17, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were lost in wonder at my tale when it was interpreted to them, and said that adventures so surprising must be related to their king only by the man to whom they had happened.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** adventures, eyes, my · **What happens:** lose, interpret, say, be, happen, tell · **To what, where:** eyes, wonder, tale · **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 (adventures, eyes, my), 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:pg128:17:69
# text = They were lost in wonder at my tale when it was interpreted to them, and said that adventures so surprising must be related to their king only by the man to whom they had happened.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	wonder	wonder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	interpreted	interpret	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
19	adventures	adventure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
20	so	so	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	surprising	surprising	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
22	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	cop	_	_
24	related	related	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	ccomp	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	only	only	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
29	by	by	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	31	nmod	_	_
34	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
35	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	33	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lose** | past · passive |  | eyes *= eye* |  | wonder |  | at my tale | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 2 | **interpret** | past · passive |  | tale | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: subject=Theme to they=be' |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | must | adventures |  |  |  |  | to eyes's king by the man to eyes's king by the man to king; related *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **happen** | past · perfect | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **tell** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom tale «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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