---
title: But the old man was at his last gasp, and had barely murmured his co… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: But the old man was at his last gasp, and had barely murmured his confession of faith when he expired. Who acts: old man, man. 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 88

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But the old man was at his last gasp, and had barely murmured his confession of faith when he expired.

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**Who acts:** old man, man · **What happens:** be, murmur, expire, confess · **To what, where:** last gasp, confession, faith

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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 (old man, man), 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:pg128:26:88
# text = But the old man was at his last gasp, and had barely murmured his confession of faith when he expired.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	gasp	gasp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	barely	barely	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	murmured	murmur	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	confession	confession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	faith	faith	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	expired	expire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the old man |  |  | man's last gasp |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **murmur** *speech: other* | past · perfect | the old man *not said here* | man's confession of faith |  |  |  | barely *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent confession=Topic |
| 3 | **expire** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **confess** |  | man | faith |  |  |  |  | nom confession «communication transitive»: poss=agent of=patient |

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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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