---
title: The old woman started back in surprise as if she had received an ins… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The old woman started back in surprise as if she had received an insult. " Who acts: old woman, woman. 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 8

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The old woman started back in surprise as if she had received an insult. "

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**Who acts:** old woman, woman · **What happens:** start back, receive · **To what, where:** surprise, insult

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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 (old woman, woman), 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:pg128:21:8
# text = The old woman started back in surprise as if she had received an insult. "
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	received	receive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
13	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	insult	insult	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start back** | past | the old woman |  |  | surprise |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **receive** | past · perfect | woman | a insult |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent insult=Theme |

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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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