---
title: I was soon ready to start, and taking the letter and the present I e… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: I was soon ready to start, and taking the letter and the present I embarked at Balsora, and sailed quickly and safely to Serendib. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 18, sentence 55

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I was soon ready to start, and taking the letter and the present I embarked at Balsora, and sailed quickly and safely to Serendib.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, start, take, embark, sail · **To what, where:** letter, present, Balsora, Serendib

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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 (I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg128:18:55
# text = I was soon ready to start, and taking the letter and the present I embarked at Balsora, and sailed quickly and safely to Serendib.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
4	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	start	start	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	present	present	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	embarked	embark	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Balsora	Balsora	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	sailed	sail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
22	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	safely	safely	ADV	RB	_	22	conj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	Serendib	Serendib	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | I |  |  |  |  | ready, soon *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **start** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **take** | gerund |  | the letter and the present |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Theme |
| 4 | **embark** | past | I | the present *not said here* |  | Balsora |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **sail** | past |  |  |  | Serendib |  | quickly *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent to serendib=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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