---
title: While eating some fish, a bone got into his throat, and in spite of… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: While eating some fish, a bone got into his throat, and in spite of all we could do, he died shortly. Who acts: bone, we. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 22, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 22, sentence 35

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While eating some fish, a bone got into his throat, and in spite of all we could do, he died shortly.

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**Who acts:** bone, we · **What happens:** eat, get, do, die · **To what, where:** fish, throat

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bone, we), 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:pg128:22:35
# text = While eating some fish, a bone got into his throat, and in spite of all we could do, he died shortly.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
3	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	det	_	_
4	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	bone	bone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	into	into	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	throat	throat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	nmod	_	_
18	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
24	shortly	shortly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | gerund | a bone *not said here* | some fish |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Patient |
| 2 | **get** | past | a bone |  |  | bone's throat |  |  | vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme into throat=Destination |
| 3 | **do** | could | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **die** | past | bone |  |  |  |  | in spite of all; shortly *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in spite=Attribute |

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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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