---
title: On learning that it was so, he promised to obtain the highest possib… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: On learning that it was so, he promised to obtain the highest possible price for her. Who acts: lord, room. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 29, sentence 12

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On learning that it was so, he promised to obtain the highest possible price for her.

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**Who acts:** lord, room · **What happens:** learn, be, promise, obtain · **To what, where:** highest possible price

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lord, room), 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:pg128:29:12
# text = On learning that it was so, he promised to obtain the highest possible price for her.
1	On	on	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	learning	learn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	obtain	obtain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	highest	high	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	amod	_	_
14	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	price	price	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **learn** | gerund | lord *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | room |  |  |  |  | so *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | lord |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **obtain** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | lord *not said here* | the highest possible price |  |  |  | for Hagi | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent price=Theme for she=Asset |

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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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