---
title: "It is certainly most surprising," cried he, when he had heard it al… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "It is certainly most surprising," cried he, when he had heard it all, "but I should like to examine the body." Who acts: tale, barber, Sultan. 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 49

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"It is certainly most surprising," cried he, when he had heard it all, "but I should like to examine the body."

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**Who acts:** tale, barber, Sultan · **What happens:** be, cry, hear, like, examine · **To what, where:** barber, tale, body · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (tale, barber, Sultan), 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:pg128:22:49
# text = "It is certainly most surprising," cried he, when he had heard it all, "but I should like to examine the body."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	6	advmod	_	_
6	surprising	surprising	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	_
9	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	parataxis	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	examine	examine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | tale |  |  |  |  | certainly, surprising *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | tale *not said here* | barber |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Topic |
| 3 | **hear** | past · perfect | barber | tale |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
| 4 | **like** *in a quote* | should | the Sultan *= sultan* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **examine** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | the Sultan *= sultan* *not said here* | the body |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent body=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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