---
title: "You are going," he said to the chief of police, "to kill an innocen… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "You are going," he said to the chief of police, "to kill an innocent man, for it is impossible that he should have murdered a creature who was dead already. Who acts: chief, purveyor, creature. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19, with its dependency t
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 19, sentence 95

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"You are going," he said to the chief of police, "to kill an innocent man, for it is impossible that he should have murdered a creature who was dead already.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** chief, purveyor, creature · **What happens:** go, say, kill, be, murder · **To what, where:** chief, innocent man, creature · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (chief, purveyor, creature), 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:pg128:19:95
# text = "You are going," he said to the chief of police, "to kill an innocent man, for it is impossible that he should have murdered a creature who was dead already.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	police	police	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
18	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	innocent	innocent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	expl	_	_
24	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	parataxis	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	aux	_	_
30	murdered	murder	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	advcl	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	35	nsubj	_	_
34	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
35	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	acl	_	_
36	already	already	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** *in a quote* | present · progressive | the chief of police *= chief* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | purveyor |  | the chief of police |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to chief=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **kill** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | a innocent man |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Theme |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **murder** *in a quote* | should · perfect | purveyor | a creature |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent creature=Patient |
| 6 | **is** *in a quote* | past | a creature |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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