---
title: "I am quite in earnest," persisted the princess, "and I want to know… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "I am quite in earnest," persisted the princess, "and I want to know where he is." Who acts: nurse, earnest. 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/pg128/24/46/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 24, sentence 46

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"I am quite in earnest," persisted the princess, "and I want to know where he is."

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**Who acts:** nurse, earnest · **What happens:** be, persist, want, know · **To what, where:** princess · **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 (nurse, earnest), 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:pg128:24:46
# text = "I am quite in earnest," persisted the princess, "and I want to know where he is."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	earnest	earn	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	persisted	persist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	21	advmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the nurse *= nurse* |  |  |  |  | earn *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **persist** | past | earnest | the princess |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **want** *in a quote* | present | the nurse *= nurse* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **know** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | the nurse *= nurse* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **be** *in a quote* | present | nurse |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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