---
title: "I was once," replied she, "the wife of an honest merchant, and that… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "I was once," replied she, "the wife of an honest merchant, and that old woman, whose wickedness I did not know, used occasionally to visit me. ' Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 21, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"I was once," replied she, "the wife of an honest merchant, and that old woman, whose wickedness I did not know, used occasionally to visit me. '

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, reply, not know, use, visit · **To what, where:** lady, wickedness, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (I), 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:pg128:21:59
# text = "I was once," replied she, "the wife of an honest merchant, and that old woman, whose wickedness I did not know, used occasionally to visit me. '
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	honest	honest	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
20	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	wickedness	wickedness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	appos	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	conj	_	_
31	occasionally	occasionally	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	visit	visit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	advcl	_	_
34	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
36	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | past | I |  |  |  |  | once *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past |  | lady |  |  |  | the wife of a honest merchant *obl*; that old woman *obl* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **know** *in a quote* | past · do-support | I | that old woman's wickedness *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer wickedness=Stimulus |
| 4 | **use** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  | occasionally *property* | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **visit** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | me |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Co-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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