---
title: On Noureddin's return Khacan pretended to be about to slay him, but… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: On Noureddin's return Khacan pretended to be about to slay him, but yielding to his wife's intercession, said to his son: Who acts: Khacan, Noureddin, wife. 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 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On Noureddin's return Khacan pretended to be about to slay him, but yielding to his wife's intercession, said to his son:

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**Who acts:** Khacan, Noureddin, wife · **What happens:** pretend, be, slay, yield, say, return · **To what, where:** return, vizir, son · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Khacan, Noureddin, wife), 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:pg128:28:74
# text = On Noureddin's return Khacan pretended to be about to slay him, but yielding to his wife's intercession, said to his son:
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	Noureddin	Noureddin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	Khacan	Khacan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	pretended	pretend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
9	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	yielding	yield	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	's	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	_
20	intercession	intercession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pretend** | past | Khacan |  |  | Noureddin's return |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | Khacan *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **slay** | to-infinitive | Khacan *not said here* | vizir |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 4 | **yield** | gerund | Khacan *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to vizir's wife's intercession | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to intercession=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Khacan *not said here* |  | vizir's son |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to son=Recipient |
| 6 | **return** |  | Noureddin |  |  |  |  |  | nom return «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 7 | **intercede** |  | vizir's wife |  |  |  |  |  | nom intercession «communication intransitive»: 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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