---
title: On his elephant's neck sits an officer, his golden lance in his hand… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: On his elephant's neck sits an officer, his golden lance in his hand, and behind him stands another bearing a pillar of gold, at the top of which is an emerald as long as my hand. Who acts: another, top. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 18, with its dep
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 18, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On his elephant's neck sits an officer, his golden lance in his hand, and behind him stands another bearing a pillar of gold, at the top of which is an emerald as long as my hand.

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**Who acts:** another, top · **What happens:** sit, stand, bear, be · **To what, where:** officer, neck, pillar, top

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (another, top), 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:pg128:18:28
# text = On his elephant's neck sits an officer, his golden lance in his hand, and behind him stands another bearing a pillar of gold, at the top of which is an emerald as long as my hand.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
6	sits	sit	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	officer	officer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	lance	lance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	_
20	stands	stand	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
21	another	another	PRON	DT	PronType=Ind	22	nsubj	_	_
22	bearing	bear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	ccomp	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	pillar	pillar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
32	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	35	nsubj	_	_
33	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
34	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	emerald	emerald	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
36	as	as	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	30	advmod	_	_
38	as	as	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | present |  | a officer |  | Commander's elephant's neck |  | Commander's golden lance in Commander's hand *obl* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent officer=Theme on neck=Location |
| 2 | **stand** | present |  |  |  |  |  | behind Commander | vn admire-31.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **bear** | gerund | another | a pillar of gold |  | the top |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pillar=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | present | the top |  |  |  |  | of a emerald | tree rules |

<!-- .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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