---
title: The prince was less surprised but no less firm than on the former oc… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The prince was less surprised but no less firm than on the former occasion, and begged his father not to press the subject, adding that it was quite useless to urge him any longer. Who acts: prince, it. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 22, with its depe
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 22, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The prince was less surprised but no less firm than on the former occasion, and begged his father not to press the subject, adding that it was quite useless to urge him any longer.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince, it · **What happens:** be, beg, not press, add, urge · **To what, where:** father, subject, prince · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (prince, it), 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:pg128:22:88
# text = The prince was less surprised but no less firm than on the former occasion, and begged his father not to press the subject, adding that it was quite useless to urge him any longer.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
5	surprised	surprised	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	no	no	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	less	less	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	amod	_	_
9	firm	firm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
10	than	than	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	occasion	occasion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	press	press	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	subject	subject	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	adding	add	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
30	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	useless	useless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	ccomp	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	urge	urge	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	iobj	_	_
35	any	any	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the prince |  |  |  |  | less, surprised *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  | than the former occasion | tree rules |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | the prince *not said here* |  | prince's father |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent father=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **press** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | the subject |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
| 5 | **add** *speech: assert* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | useless *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **urge** | to-infinitive |  |  | prince |  |  | long *property* | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |

<!-- .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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