---
title: At first I refused, but she begged so hard and promised to be such a… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: At first I refused, but she begged so hard and promised to be such a good wife to me, that at last I consented. Who acts: I, woman, that. 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 23

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At first I refused, but she begged so hard and promised to be such a good wife to me, that at last I consented.

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**Who acts:** I, woman, that · **What happens:** refuse, beg, promise, be, consent · **To what, where:** last, good wife, me

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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 (I, woman, that), 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:pg128:3:23
# text = At first I refused, but she begged so hard and promised to be such a good wife to me, that at last I consented.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	obl	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	refused	refuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
15	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	18	det:predet	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	nsubj	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	obl	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	consented	consent	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refuse** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | woman |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | woman *not said here* |  |  | last |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | to-infinitive | that | such good wife | me |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **consent** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn acquiesce-95.1-1-1 «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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