---
title: "This cornelian must be something very precious," thought he, "or my… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "This cornelian must be something very precious," thought he, "or my wife would not wear it on her person with so much care." Who acts: cornelian, wife. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 25, sentence 80

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"This cornelian must be something very precious," thought he, "or my wife would not wear it on her person with so much care."

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**Who acts:** cornelian, wife · **What happens:** be, think, not wear · **To what, where:** something, Prince, cornelian · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cornelian, wife), 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:pg128:25:80
# text = "This cornelian must be something very precious," thought he, "or my wife would not wear it on her person with so much care."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	cornelian	cornelian	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	0	root	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
11	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	wear	wear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | must | this cornelian | something |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  | Prince |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot he=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **wear** *in a quote* | would | my wife | cornelian |  |  |  | on wife's person; with much care | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=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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