---
title: As he was hacking at one of the roots the axe struck on something ha… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: As he was hacking at one of the roots the axe struck on something hard. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/26/54/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Arabian Nights Entertainments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/) / [Opening, part 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/26/) / 54

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 26, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As he was hacking at one of the roots the axe struck on something hard.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Prince · **What happens:** hack, strike · **To what, where:** axe, something

<!-- .vabout -->
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.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg128:26:54
# text = As he was hacking at one of the roots the axe struck on something hard.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	hacking	hack	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
12	struck	strike	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	12	obl	_	_
15	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hack** | past · progressive | Prince |  |  |  |  | at one of the roots and the axe | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at one=Patient |
| 2 | **strike** | participle |  | the axe *not said here* |  | something |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on something=Location |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/26/53/)
- next →: [sentence 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/26/55/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/26/)