---
title: "Prince!" he exclaimed, "how would it be possible for any man, much… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "Prince!" he exclaimed, "how would it be possible for any man, much less a woman, to enter this room at night without walking over your slave on the threshold? Who acts: Prince, question. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 24, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 24, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Prince!" he exclaimed, "how would it be possible for any man, much less a woman, to enter this room at night without walking over your slave on the threshold?

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**Who acts:** Prince, question · **What happens:** exclaim, be, enter, walk · **To what, where:** room, slave · **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 (Prince, question), 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:pg128:24:8
# text = "Prince!" he exclaimed, "how would it be possible for any man, much less a woman, to enter this room at night without walking over your slave on the threshold?
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	exclaimed	exclaim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	cop	_	_
13	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	much	much	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	21	advmod	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	enter	enter	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
25	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
26	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
30	walking	walk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
31	over	over	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
34	on	on	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	threshold	threshold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **exclaim** *speech: express* | past | Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | would | question |  |  |  |  | for any man; possible *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **enter** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | this room |  |  | night |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme room=Destination |
| 4 | **walk** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  | your slave |  | on the threshold | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over slave=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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