---
title: It threw itself at my feet, with its head on the ground, as if it wi… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: It threw itself at my feet, with its head on the ground, as if it wished to excite my pity, and to beg me not to take away its life. Who acts: steward, my. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/2/106/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Arabian Nights Entertainments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/) / [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/2/) / 106

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 2, sentence 106

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It threw itself at my feet, with its head on the ground, as if it wished to excite my pity, and to beg me not to take away its life.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** steward, my · **What happens:** throw, wish, excite, beg, not take away, pity · **To what, where:** steward, feet, pity, me, life

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (steward, my), 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:pg128:2:106
# text = It threw itself at my feet, with its head on the ground, as if it wished to excite my pity, and to beg me not to take away its life.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obj	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	excite	excite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	beg	beg	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
27	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
31	away	away	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw** | past | steward | steward |  | my feet |  | with steward's head on the ground | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent itself=Theme at foot=Destination |
| 2 | **wish** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | steward |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **excite** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | steward *not said here* | my pity |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus pity=Experiencer |
| 4 | **beg** *speech: request* | to-infinitive | steward *not said here* |  | me |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **take away** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | steward *not said here* | steward's life |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 6 | **pity** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom pity «feeling 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/2/105/)
- next →: [sentence 107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/2/107/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/2/)