---
title: "Princess," exclaimed the nurse, "we cannot tell what you allude to… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "Princess," exclaimed the nurse, "we cannot tell what you allude to without more explanation." Who acts: nurse, we, you. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/24/41/)

<!-- 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/) / 41

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 24, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Princess," exclaimed the nurse, "we cannot tell what you allude to without more explanation."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** nurse, we, you · **What happens:** exclaim, not tell, allude · **To what, where:** Princess · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (nurse, we, you), 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:pg128:24:41
# text = "Princess," exclaimed the nurse, "we cannot tell what you allude to without more explanation."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	_
5	exclaimed	exclaim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
14	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	obj	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	allude	allude	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	xcomp	_	_
18	without	without	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	20	amod	_	_
20	explanation	explanation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **exclaim** *speech: express* | past | the nurse | Princess |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **allude** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | without more explanation | 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 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/24/40/)
- next →: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/24/42/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/24/)