---
title: He was still absorbed in contemplating his good fortune, when a knoc… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: He was still absorbed in contemplating his good fortune, when a knock came to his door, and on opening it he found an old woman standing outside. Who acts: knock, Alnaschar, old woman. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 20, sentence 91

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He was still absorbed in contemplating his good fortune, when a knock came to his door, and on opening it he found an old woman standing outside.

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**Who acts:** knock, Alnaschar, old woman · **What happens:** absorb, contemplate, come, open, find, stand · **To what, where:** Alnaschar, good fortune, door, knock, old woman

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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 (knock, Alnaschar, old woman), 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:pg128:20:91
# text = He was still absorbed in contemplating his good fortune, when a knock came to his door, and on opening it he found an old woman standing outside.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
3	still	still	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	absorbed	absorb	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
6	contemplating	contemplate	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	fortune	fortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	14	mark	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	knock	knock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	opening	open	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
25	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
28	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	acl	_	_
29	outside	outside	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **absorb** | past · passive |  | Alnaschar |  |  | still |  | vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **contemplate** | gerund |  | Alnaschar's good fortune |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** | past | a knock |  |  | Alnaschar's door |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to door=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **open** | gerund | Alnaschar *not said here* | knock |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme |
| 5 | **find** | past | Alnaschar | a old woman |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent woman=Topic |
| 6 | **stand** | gerund | a old woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | outside *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=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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