---
title: My brother, hearing this, asked the porters, of whom there were seve… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: My brother, hearing this, asked the porters, of whom there were several, if they would give him alms. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/21/93/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 21, sentence 93

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My brother, hearing this, asked the porters, of whom there were several, if they would give him alms.

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**Who acts:** brother · **What happens:** hear, ask, give · **To what, where:** this, porters, alms, Barmecide

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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:pg128:21:93
# text = My brother, hearing this, asked the porters, of whom there were several, if they would give him alms.
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	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	porters	porter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	parataxis	_	_
13	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	14	expl	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	alms	alm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | gerund | My brother *not said here* | this |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | My brother | the porters |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent porter=Recipient |
| 3 | **give** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | brother | alms | Barmecide |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient alm=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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