---
title: Khacan was at great pains frequently to speak to the king of the dif… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Khacan was at great pains frequently to speak to the king of the difficulties attending the commission he had given him, but some whispers of what had actually taken place did reach Saouy's ears. Who acts: Khacan, difficulties, commission, whispers. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/28/78/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Arabian Nights Entertainments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/) / [Opening, part 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/28/) / 78

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 28, sentence 78

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Khacan was at great pains frequently to speak to the king of the difficulties attending the commission he had given him, but some whispers of what had actually taken place did reach Saouy's ears.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Khacan, difficulties, commission, whispers · **What happens:** be, attend, give, take, reach · **To what, where:** commission, king, father, place, ears

<!-- .vabout -->
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, difficulties, commission, whispers), 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:pg128:28:78
# text = Khacan was at great pains frequently to speak to the king of the difficulties attending the commission he had given him, but some whispers of what had actually taken place did reach Saouy's ears.
1	Khacan	Khacan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	pains	pain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
6	frequently	frequently	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	speak	speak	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	difficulties	difficulty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	_
15	attending	attend	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	acl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	commission	commission	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
24	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
25	whispers	whisper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nmod	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	actually	actually	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	acl:relcl	_	_
31	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
32	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
34	Saouy	Saouy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	's	's	PART	POS	_	34	case	_	_
36	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Khacan |  |  |  |  | to the king of the difficulties; frequently, speak *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **attend** | gerund | the difficulties *not said here* | the commission |  |  |  |  | vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme commission=Goal |
| 3 | **give** | past · perfect · passive | the commission *not said here* | king | father |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient he=Theme |
| 4 | **take** | past · perfect |  | place |  |  |  | actually *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Theme |
| 5 | **reach** | past · do-support | some whispers | Saouy's ears |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent ear=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/28/77/)
- next →: [sentence 79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/28/79/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/28/)