---
title: Knocking at the door of the first and chief, the slave who opened it… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Knocking at the door of the first and chief, the slave who opened it left him to wait in a hall while he announced his visit to his master. " Who acts: slave, One. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 28, sentence 109

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Knocking at the door of the first and chief, the slave who opened it left him to wait in a hall while he announced his visit to his master. "

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**Who acts:** slave, One · **What happens:** knock, open, leave, wait, announce, visit · **To what, where:** door, One, hall, visit, master

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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 (slave, One), 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:pg128:28:109
# text = Knocking at the door of the first and chief, the slave who opened it left him to wait in a hall while he announced his visit to his master. "
1	Knocking	knock	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	nmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	chief	chief	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	wait	wait	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	announced	announce	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	visit	visit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
32	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **knock** | gerund | the slave *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the door of the first | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at door=Patient |
| 2 | **open** | past | the slave | door |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme |
| 3 | **leave** | past | the slave | One |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **wait** | to-infinitive | One *not said here* |  |  | a hall |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hall=Location |
| 5 | **announce** *speech: other* | past | One | One's visit | One's master |  |  |  | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent visit=Theme to master=Recipient |
| 6 | **visit** |  | One |  |  |  |  |  | nom visit «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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