---
title: The friend, who had been listening behind the curtain, immediately h… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The friend, who had been listening behind the curtain, immediately hastened to communicate the news to the rest of the company. Who acts: friend. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 28, sentence 101

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The friend, who had been listening behind the curtain, immediately hastened to communicate the news to the rest of the company.

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**Who acts:** friend · **What happens:** listen, hasten, communicate · **To what, where:** curtain, news, rest

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (friend), 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:pg128:28:101
# text = The friend, who had been listening behind the curtain, immediately hastened to communicate the news to the rest of the company.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	aux	_	_
7	listening	listen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	appos	_	_
8	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	curtain	curtain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	immediately	immediately	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	hastened	hasten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl:relcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	communicate	communicate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	news	news	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	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	company	company	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** | past · perfect · progressive | the friend |  |  |  |  | behind the curtain | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent behind curtain=Theme |
| 2 | **hasten** | participle |  | the curtain *not said here* |  |  |  | immediately *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **communicate** | to-infinitive |  | the news | the rest of the company |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent news=Topic to rest=Recipient |

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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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