---
title: He struck it, and then it was hit back by the courtiers who were pla… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: He struck it, and then it was hit back by the courtiers who were playing with him. Who acts: king, courtiers. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 3, sentence 141

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He struck it, and then it was hit back by the courtiers who were playing with him.

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**Who acts:** king, courtiers · **What happens:** strike, hit back, play · **To what, where:** horse

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, courtiers), 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:pg128:3:141
# text = He struck it, and then it was hit back by the courtiers who were playing with him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
6	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	hit	hit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
10	back	back	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	courtiers	courtier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | past | king | horse |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 2 | **hit back** | past · passive | the courtiers | horse |  |  | then |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme subject=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **play** | past · progressive | the courtiers |  |  |  |  | with king | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with he=Co-Agent |

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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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