---
title: "Oh, my lord," he cried, turning to the chief of police, "how nearly… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "Oh, my lord," he cried, turning to the chief of police, "how nearly have you caused the death of three innocent people! Who acts: chief, you, three innocent people. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 20, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Oh, my lord," he cried, turning to the chief of police, "how nearly have you caused the death of three innocent people!

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**Who acts:** chief, you, three innocent people · **What happens:** cry, turn, have, cause, die · **To what, where:** chief, death · **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 (chief, you, three innocent people), 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:pg128:20:3
# text = "Oh, my lord," he cried, turning to the chief of police, "how nearly have you caused the death of three innocent people!
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	lord	lord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	police	police	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
20	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	caused	cause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	ccomp	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
28	innocent	innocent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | chief |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **turn** | gerund | chief *not said here* |  |  | the chief of police |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to chief=Trajectory |
| 3 | **have** *in a quote* | present | chief *not said here* |  |  |  |  | nearly *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **cause** *in a quote* | past | you | the death of three innocent people |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition death=Patient |
| 5 | **die** *in a quote* |  | three innocent people |  |  |  |  |  | nom death «event intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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