---
title: At last the king said: "My son, pray tell me about the lady who, it… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: At last the king said: "My son, pray tell me about the lady who, it is said, was in your room last night." Who acts: last king, son. 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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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 24, sentence 25

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At last the king said: "My son, pray tell me about the lady who, it is said, was in your room last night."

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**Who acts:** last king, son · **What happens:** say, pray, tell, be · **To what, where:** last king, question, room · **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 (last king, son), 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:pg128:24:25
# text = At last the king said: "My son, pray tell me about the lady who, it is said, was in your room last night."
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	pray	pray	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
13	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	about	about	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	_
27	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the last king |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **pray** *in a quote* | present | My son *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive | My son |  | the last king *= king* |  |  | about the lady | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent i=Recipient about lady=Topic |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present · passive |  | question |  |  |  | the lady *obl* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | past |  |  |  | your room | night |  | tree rules |

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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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