---
title: The next day the merchant began to settle his affairs, and first of… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The next day the merchant began to settle his affairs, and first of all to pay his debts. Who acts: merchant. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 2, sentence 47

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The next day the merchant began to settle his affairs, and first of all to pay his debts.

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**Who acts:** merchant · **What happens:** begin, settle, pay · **To what, where:** affairs, debts

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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 (merchant), 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:pg128:2:47
# text = The next day the merchant began to settle his affairs, and first of all to pay his debts.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	settle	settle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	affairs	affair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	17	advmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	obl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	pay	pay	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	debts	debt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the merchant |  |  |  | day |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **settle** | to-infinitive | the merchant *not said here* | merchant's affairs |  |  |  |  | vn odge-46-1 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme affair=Location |
| 3 | **pay** | to-infinitive |  | merchant's debts |  |  |  | first *property* | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent debt=Asset |

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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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