---
title: They promised to do their utmost, and no day passed that they did no… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: They promised to do their utmost, and no day passed that they did not bring a slave for his inspection but none was found without some defect. Who acts: Khacan, day, Saouy. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 27, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 27, sentence 102

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They promised to do their utmost, and no day passed that they did not bring a slave for his inspection but none was found without some defect.

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**Who acts:** Khacan, day, Saouy · **What happens:** promise, do, pass, not bring, find, inspect · **To what, where:** utmost, slave, none

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Khacan, day, Saouy), 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:pg128:27:102
# text = They promised to do their utmost, and no day passed that they did not bring a slave for his inspection but none was found without some defect.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	utmost	utmost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	10	det	_	_
10	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	inspection	inspection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
26	without	without	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	det	_	_
28	defect	defect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | Khacan |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **do** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Khacan *not said here* | Khacan's utmost |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent utmost=Eventuality |
| 3 | **pass** | past | no day |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **bring** | past · do-support | Khacan | a slave |  |  |  | for Saouy's inspection | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent slave=Theme |
| 5 | **find** | past · passive |  | none |  |  |  | without some defect | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 6 | **inspect** |  | Saouy |  |  |  |  |  | nom inspection «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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