---
title: My brother, however, was too quick for her, and in another instant h… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: My brother, however, was too quick for her, and in another instant her head was rolling from her shoulders. Who acts: brother. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 21, sentence 48

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My brother, however, was too quick for her, and in another instant her head was rolling from her shoulders.

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**Who acts:** brother · **What happens:** be, roll · **To what, where:** instant head

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brother), 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:pg128:21:48
# text = My brother, however, was too quick for her, and in another instant her head was rolling from her shoulders.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	too	too	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
15	instant	instant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	rolling	roll	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | My brother |  |  |  |  | for sabre; however, quick *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **roll** | past · progressive | My brother *not said here* |  |  | sabre's instant head |  | from sabre's shoulders | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V PP.source PP.trajectory PP.destination»: agent=Theme in head=Source from shoulder=Trajectory |

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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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