---
title: My eldest brother and I did all we could to dissuade him, but it was… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: My eldest brother and I did all we could to dissuade him, but it was of no use. Who acts: eldest brother, travel. 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 8

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My eldest brother and I did all we could to dissuade him, but it was of no use.

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**Who acts:** eldest brother, travel · **What happens:** dissuade, be · **To what, where:** him

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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 (eldest brother, travel), 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:pg128:3:8
# text = My eldest brother and I did all we could to dissuade him, but it was of no use.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	conj	_	_
6	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	11	nsubj:outer	_	_
8	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	dissuade	dissuade	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
19	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dissuade** | could · past · do-support | My eldest brother |  | him *= he* |  |  |  | vn discourage-64.5 «NP V NP PP.eventuality»: agent=Causer he=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **is** | past | travel |  |  |  |  | of no use | tree rules |

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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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