---
title: Then we bought the merchandise of the country, and were just going t… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Then we bought the merchandise of the country, and were just going to sail once more, when I was stopped on the shore by a beautiful though poorly dressed woman. Who acts: we, beautiful dressed woman. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 3, with its depende
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 3, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then we bought the merchandise of the country, and were just going to sail once more, when I was stopped on the shore by a beautiful though poorly dressed woman.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we, beautiful dressed woman · **What happens:** buy, go, sail, stop, dress · **To what, where:** merchandise, I, shore

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (we, beautiful dressed woman), 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:pg128:3:21
# text = Then we bought the merchandise of the country, and were just going to sail once more, when I was stopped on the shore by a beautiful though poorly dressed woman.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	bought	buy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	merchandise	merchandise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	just	just	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	sail	sail	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	15	advmod	_	_
17	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	stopped	stop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	by	by	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
28	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
29	though	though	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
30	poorly	poorly	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	dressed	dress	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	amod	_	_
32	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **buy** | past | we | the merchandise of the country |  |  | then |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent merchandise=Theme |
| 2 | **go** | past · progressive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **sail** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  | once *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **stop** | past · passive | a beautiful dressed woman | I |  | the shore |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector subject=Eventuality |
| 5 | **dress** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | poorly, though *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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