---
title: The king was almost speechless on hearing his son, but after a time… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The king was almost speechless on hearing his son, but after a time assured him most solemnly that he knew nothing whatever about the lady in question, and had not connived at her appearance. Who acts: king. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 24, with its
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/24/28/)

<!-- 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 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/24/) / 28

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 24, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The king was almost speechless on hearing his son, but after a time assured him most solemnly that he knew nothing whatever about the lady in question, and had not connived at her appearance.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** be, hear, assure, know, not connive · **To what, where:** son, king, nothing, appearance

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (king), 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:pg128:24:28
# text = The king was almost speechless on hearing his son, but after a time assured him most solemnly that he knew nothing whatever about the lady in question, and had not connived at her appearance.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	speechless	speechless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	after	after	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
15	assured	assure	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	18	advmod	_	_
18	solemnly	solemnly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
22	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	21	obj	_	_
23	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	advmod	_	_
24	about	about	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
33	connived	connive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	conj	_	_
34	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	appearance	appearance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	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 king |  |  |  |  | almost, speechless *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **hear** | gerund | the king *not said here* | king's son |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer son=Stimulus |
| 3 | **assure** | participle |  |  | king |  | time | solemnly *property* | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 4 | **know** | past | king | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 5 | **not** **connive** | past · perfect | king *not said here* |  |  | lady's appearance |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/24/27/)
- next →: [sentence 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/24/29/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/24/)