---
title: The merchant was still pondering on this subject when he was summone… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The merchant was still pondering on this subject when he was summoned before the chief of police and questioned about his crime, which he could not deny. Who acts: merchant, Hunchback. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and th
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/19/84/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 19, sentence 84

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The merchant was still pondering on this subject when he was summoned before the chief of police and questioned about his crime, which he could not deny.

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**Who acts:** merchant, Hunchback · **What happens:** ponder, summon, question, not deny, incriminate · **To what, where:** Hunchback, crime

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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 (merchant, Hunchback), 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:pg128:19:84
# text = The merchant was still pondering on this subject when he was summoned before the chief of police and questioned about his crime, which he could not deny.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	still	still	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	pondering	ponder	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	subject	subject	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	summoned	summon	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	advcl	_	_
13	before	before	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	police	police	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	questioned	question	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
20	about	about	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	crime	crime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	obj	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	deny	deny	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ponder** | past · progressive | the merchant |  |  |  | still | on this subject | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent on subject=Topic |
| 2 | **summon** | past · passive |  | Hunchback |  |  | before the chief of police |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Recipient |
| 3 | **question** *speech: other* | past |  |  |  |  |  | about Hunchback's crime | vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent about crime=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **deny** | could | Hunchback | Hunchback's crime |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent which=Eventuality |
| 5 | **incriminate** |  | Hunchback |  |  |  |  |  | nom crime «act 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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