---
title: The second old man had not sooner heard the story than he, too, deci… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The second old man had not sooner heard the story than he, too, decided to stay there to see what would happen. Who acts: second old man. 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/pg128/2/65/)

<!-- 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/) / 65

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 2, sentence 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The second old man had not sooner heard the story than he, too, decided to stay there to see what would happen.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** second old man · **What happens:** hear, decide, stay, see, happen · **To what, where:** story · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (second old man), 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:pg128:2:65
# text = The second old man had not sooner heard the story than he, too, decided to stay there to see what would happen.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	amod	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	8	advmod	_	_
8	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	than	than	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	too	too	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
16	decided	decide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	24	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the second old man | the story |  |  |  | than genius; soon *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer story=Stimulus |
| 2 | **decide** | past | the second old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **stay** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the second old man *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | the second old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/2/64/)
- next →: [sentence 66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/2/66/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/2/)