---
title: They told her that he was a poor man who had laid out all his money… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: They told her that he was a poor man who had laid out all his money on this basket of glass, which was now broken. Who acts: others, man, poor man. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 20, sentence 86

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They told her that he was a poor man who had laid out all his money on this basket of glass, which was now broken.

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**Who acts:** others, man, poor man · **What happens:** tell, be, lay out, break · **To what, where:** lady, poor man, basket, glass · **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 (others, man, poor 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:pg128:20:86
# text = They told her that he was a poor man who had laid out all his money on this basket of glass, which was now broken.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	out	out	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	16	det:predet	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	parataxis	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	basket	basket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	glass	glass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
25	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	_
26	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | others *= other* |  | lady |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 2 | **is a** | past | man | a poor man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **lay out** | past · perfect | a poor man |  |  | this basket of glass |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on basket=Destination |
| 4 | **break** | past · passive |  | glass |  |  | now |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

<!-- .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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