---
title: In descending the stairs the doctor accidentally knocked over the co… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: In descending the stairs the doctor accidentally knocked over the corpse, and finding him dead believed that he himself was the murderer. Who acts: finding, man. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 20, sentence 13

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In descending the stairs the doctor accidentally knocked over the corpse, and finding him dead believed that he himself was the murderer.

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**Who acts:** finding, man · **What happens:** descend, knock, find, believe, be · **To what, where:** stairs, corpse, man, murderer · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (finding, man), 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:pg128:20:13
# text = In descending the stairs the doctor accidentally knocked over the corpse, and finding him dead believed that he himself was the murderer.
1	In	in	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	descending	descend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	stairs	stair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	doctor	doctor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
7	accidentally	accidentally	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	knocked	knock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	over	over	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	corpse	corpse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	finding	find	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	csubj	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
17	believed	believe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	19	nmod:unmarked	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	murderer	murderer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **descend** | gerund |  | the stairs |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **knock** | past |  |  |  | the corpse |  | accidentally *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over corpse=Location |
| 3 | **find** | gerund |  | man |  |  |  | dead *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Topic |
| 4 | **believe** | past | finding |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is a** | past | man | the murderer |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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