---
title: By his orders this story and the others I had told him were written… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: By his orders this story and the others I had told him were written by his scribes in letters of gold, and laid up among his treasures. Who acts: orders, scribes, Bagdad. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 19, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By his orders this story and the others I had told him were written by his scribes in letters of gold, and laid up among his treasures.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** orders, scribes, Bagdad · **What happens:** tell, write, lay up, order, letter, treasure · **To what, where:** story, Bagdad, letters, treasures, gold · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (orders, scribes, Bagdad), 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:pg128:19:12
# text = By his orders this story and the others I had told him were written by his scribes in letters of gold, and laid up among his treasures.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	orders	order	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
4	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	xcomp	_	_
15	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	scribes	scribe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
25	up	up	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	among	among	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	treasures	treasure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · perfect · passive | Bagdad's orders | this story and the others |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **write** *not said to happen* | past · passive | Bagdad's scribes | Bagdad |  | letters of gold |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent subject=Theme in letter=Destination |
| 3 | **lay up** | participle | Bagdad's orders *not said here* |  |  | Bagdad's treasures |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent among treasure=Destination |
| 4 | **order** |  | Bagdad |  |  |  |  |  | nom order «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 5 | **letter** |  |  | gold |  |  |  |  | nom letter «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 6 | **treasure** |  | Bagdad |  |  |  |  |  | nom treasure «possession transitive»: 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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