---
title: He declares that he saw a lady sleeping on his couch last night, and… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: He declares that he saw a lady sleeping on his couch last night, and the state you see me in proves how violent contradiction makes him." Who acts: Doubt, lady, you, violent contradiction. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 23, with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 23, sentence 121

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He declares that he saw a lady sleeping on his couch last night, and the state you see me in proves how violent contradiction makes him."

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**Who acts:** Doubt, lady, you, violent contradiction · **What happens:** declare, see, sleep, prove, make · **To what, where:** lady, couch, state, Doubt · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Doubt, lady, you, violent contradiction), 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:pg128:23:121
# text = He declares that he saw a lady sleeping on his couch last night, and the state you see me in proves how violent contradiction makes him."
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	declares	declare	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	sleeping	sleep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	acl	_	_
9	on	on	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	couch	couch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
22	proves	prove	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
23	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
24	violent	violent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	contradiction	contradiction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	ccomp	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **declare** *speech: other* | present | Doubt |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | past | Doubt | a lady |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer lady=Stimulus |
| 3 | **sleep** | gerund | a lady *not said here* |  |  | Doubt's couch | night |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **see** | present | you | the state |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **prove** | present | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **make** | present | violent contradiction | Doubt |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset he=Product |

<!-- .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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