---
title: "I confess, Prince," said the vizir, "that there is some foundation… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "I confess, Prince," said the vizir, "that there is some foundation for what you say. Who acts: vizir, you. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/24/14/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 24, sentence 14

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"I confess, Prince," said the vizir, "that there is some foundation for what you say.

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**Who acts:** vizir, you · **What happens:** confess, say, be · **To what, where:** Prince, foundation · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (vizir, you), 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:pg128:24:14
# text = "I confess, Prince," said the vizir, "that there is some foundation for what you say.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	confess	confess	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	vizir	vizir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	15	expl	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
17	foundation	foundation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nmod	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **confess** *in a quote* | present | the vizir *= vizir* | Prince |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prince=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the vizir |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | some foundation |  |  |  | for the vizir | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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