---
title: At supper I helped him to a slice of fish, but in eating it a bone s… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: At supper I helped him to a slice of fish, but in eating it a bone stuck in his throat, and in spite of all we could do he died in a few minutes. Who acts: I, we, hunchback. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 20, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At supper I helped him to a slice of fish, but in eating it a bone stuck in his throat, and in spite of all we could do he died in a few minutes.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, we, hunchback · **What happens:** help, eat, stick, do, die, slice · **To what, where:** hunchback, supper, fish, throat, spite

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (I, we, hunchback), 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:pg128:20:9
# text = At supper I helped him to a slice of fish, but in eating it a bone stuck in his throat, and in spite of all we could do he died in a few minutes.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	supper	supper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	helped	help	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	slice	slice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
13	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	bone	bone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	stuck	stick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	throat	throat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	nmod	_	_
28	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	ccomp	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **help** | past | I |  | hunchback | supper |  | to a slice of fish | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **eat** | gerund |  | fish |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **stick** | participle | I *not said here* |  |  | hunchback's throat |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme in throat=Destination |
| 4 | **do** | could | we |  |  | spite of all |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **die** | past | hunchback |  |  |  | minute |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 6 | **slice** |  |  | fish |  |  |  |  | nom slice «possession transitive»: of=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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