---
title: One day, when the tailor was hard at work, a little hunchback came a… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: One day, when the tailor was hard at work, a little hunchback came and sat at the entrance of the shop, and began to sing and play his tambourine. Who acts: tailor, little hunchback. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 19, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One day, when the tailor was hard at work, a little hunchback came and sat at the entrance of the shop, and began to sing and play his tambourine.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tailor, little hunchback · **What happens:** be, come, sit, begin, sing, play · **To what, where:** work, entrance, tambourine

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (tailor, little hunchback), 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:pg128:19:24
# text = One day, when the tailor was hard at work, a little hunchback came and sat at the entrance of the shop, and began to sing and play his tambourine.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
4	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	tailor	tailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	acl:relcl	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	hunchback	hunchback	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	entrance	entrance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	shop	shop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	conj	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	tambourine	tambourine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the tailor |  |  | work |  | hard *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | past | a little hunchback |  |  |  | day |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **sit** | past | a little hunchback *not said here* |  |  | the entrance of the shop |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at entrance=Location |
| 4 | **begin** | past | a little hunchback *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | to-infinitive | a little hunchback *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **play** | infinitive | a little hunchback *not said here* | Hunchback's tambourine |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tambourine=Theme |

<!-- .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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