---
title: The prince in despair at all his useless trouble began to think whet… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The prince in despair at all his useless trouble began to think whether he had better return to the camp. " Who acts: prince. 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 90

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The prince in despair at all his useless trouble began to think whether he had better return to the camp. "

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**Who acts:** prince · **What happens:** begin, think, have, trouble · **To what, where:** better return · **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 (prince), 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:pg128:25:90
# text = The prince in despair at all his useless trouble began to think whether he had better return to the camp. "
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	9	det:predet	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	useless	useless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
10	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
16	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	17	amod	_	_
17	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	camp	camp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
22	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the prince in despair at Prince's useless trouble |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | the prince in despair at Prince's useless trouble *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | past | Prince | better return |  |  |  | to the camp | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent return=Patient |
| 4 | **trouble** |  | Prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom trouble «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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