---
title: But the slave persisted so strongly that he knew nothing of any lady… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: But the slave persisted so strongly that he knew nothing of any lady, and still less of how she got into the tower, that the prince lost all patience, and after giving him a good beating tied a rope round him and ducked him in the well till the unfortunate man cried out that he would tell everything
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/23/114/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Arabian Nights Entertainments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/) / [Opening, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/23/) / 114

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 23, sentence 114

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the slave persisted so strongly that he knew nothing of any lady, and still less of how she got into the tower, that the prince lost all patience, and after giving him a good beating tied a rope round him and ducked him in the well till the unfortunate man cried out that he would tell everything.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** slave, prince, lady, unfortunate man · **What happens:** persist, know, get, lose, give, tie · **To what, where:** nothing, tower, patience, good beating, prince, rope · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (slave, prince, lady, unfortunate man), 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:pg128:23:114
# text = But the slave persisted so strongly that he knew nothing of any lady, and still less of how she got into the tower, that the prince lost all patience, and after giving him a good beating tied a rope round him and ducked him in the well till the unfortunate man cried out that he would tell everything.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	persisted	persist	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	strongly	strongly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
10	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	9	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	13	det	_	_
13	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	still	still	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	less	less	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	conj	_	_
18	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
22	into	into	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
29	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
30	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	31	det	_	_
31	patience	patience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
34	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
35	giving	give	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	40	advcl	_	_
36	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	iobj	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	beating	beating	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
40	tied	tie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obj	_	_
43	round	round	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	obl	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
46	ducked	duck	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	conj	_	_
47	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	obj	_	_
48	in	in	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	well	well	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	_
51	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	55	mark	_	_
52	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
53	unfortunate	unfortunate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	54	amod	_	_
54	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	nsubj	_	_
55	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	advcl	_	_
56	out	out	ADP	RP	_	55	compound:prt	_	_
57	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	60	mark	_	_
58	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	60	nsubj	_	_
59	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	60	aux	_	_
60	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	55	advcl	_	_
61	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	60	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **persist** | participle | the slave |  |  |  |  | strongly *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **know** | past | prince | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 3 | **get** | past | lady |  |  | the tower |  |  | vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme into tower=Destination |
| 4 | **lose** | past | the prince | all patience |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent patience=Eventuality |
| 5 | **give** | gerund |  | a good beating | prince |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient beating=Theme |
| 6 | **tie** | past |  | a rope |  |  |  | round prince | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rope=Patient |
| 7 | **duck** | past |  | prince |  | the well |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent he=Location |
| 8 | **cry out** *speech: express* | past | the unfortunate man |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **tell** *speech: assert* | would | prince | everything |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent everything=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 113](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/23/113/)
- next →: [sentence 115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/23/115/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/23/)