---
title: It would be impossible to describe his joy; he kissed the talisman r… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: It would be impossible to describe his joy; he kissed the talisman repeatedly, wrapped it up, and carefully tied it round his arm. Who acts: Prince. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 26, sentence 51

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It would be impossible to describe his joy; he kissed the talisman repeatedly, wrapped it up, and carefully tied it round his arm.

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**Who acts:** Prince · **What happens:** be, describe, kiss, wrap up, tie, joy · **To what, where:** joy, talisman, scene

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26. 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:pg128:26:51
# text = It would be impossible to describe his joy; he kissed the talisman repeatedly, wrapped it up, and carefully tied it round his arm.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	expl	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	cop	_	_
4	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	describe	describe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	csubj	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	kissed	kiss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	talisman	talisman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	repeatedly	repeatedly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	wrapped	wrap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	tied	tie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	round	round	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	arm	arm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would |  |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **describe** | to-infinitive |  | Prince's joy |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent joy=Theme |
| 3 | **kiss** | past | Prince | the talisman |  |  |  | repeatedly *property* | vn marry-36.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent talisman=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **wrap up** | past | Prince *not said here* | scene |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **tie** | past |  | scene |  |  |  | round Prince's arm; carefully *property* | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 6 | **joy** |  | Prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom joy «feeling 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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