---
title: While they were talking another old man came up, followed by two bla… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: While they were talking another old man came up, followed by two black dogs. Who acts: genii. 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 62

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While they were talking another old man came up, followed by two black dogs.

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**Who acts:** genii · **What happens:** talk, come up, follow · **To what, where:** old man

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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 (genii), 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:pg128:2:62
# text = While they were talking another old man came up, followed by two black dogs.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
5	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	det	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	up	up	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	advcl	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
14	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past · progressive | genii | another old man |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent man=Patient |
| 2 | **come up** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **follow** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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