---
title: For a long while the doctor and his wife continued to turn over in t… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: For a long while the doctor and his wife continued to turn over in their minds a way of escape, but could not find any that seemed good enough. Who acts: doctor, houses. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/19/49/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 19, sentence 49

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For a long while the doctor and his wife continued to turn over in their minds a way of escape, but could not find any that seemed good enough.

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**Who acts:** doctor, houses · **What happens:** continue, turn over, not find, seem, mind · **To what, where:** minds, any

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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 (doctor, houses), 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:pg128:19:49
# text = For a long while the doctor and his wife continued to turn over in their minds a way of escape, but could not find any that seemed good enough.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	doctor	doctor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
10	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	over	over	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	minds	mind	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod:unmarked	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	escape	escape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	find	find	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
26	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	obj	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
29	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	_
30	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **continue** | past | the doctor and doctor's wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn continue-55.3 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **turn over** | to-infinitive | the doctor and doctor's wife *not said here* |  |  | houses's minds  a way of escape |  |  | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **find** | could |  | any |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent any=Topic |
| 4 | **seem** | past |  |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **mind** |  | houses *= house* |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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