---
title: When my adopted son was about ten years old I was obliged to go on a… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: When my adopted son was about ten years old I was obliged to go on a journey. Who acts: adopted son. 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 80

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When my adopted son was about ten years old I was obliged to go on a journey.

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**Who acts:** adopted son · **What happens:** adopt, be, oblige, go · **To what, where:** I, journey

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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 (adopted son), 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:pg128:2:80
# text = When my adopted son was about ten years old I was obliged to go on a journey.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	9	mark	_	_
2	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	adopted	adopt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	amod	_	_
4	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
6	about	about	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
9	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **adopt** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | my adopted son |  |  |  | year | old *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 4 | **go** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | a journey |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on journey=Location |

<!-- .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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