---
title: He set it in front of him, and whilst he was looking at it attentive… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: He set it in front of him, and whilst he was looking at it attentively, such a thick smoke came out that he had to step back a pace or two. Who acts: sire, thick smoke. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/3/80/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Arabian Nights Entertainments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/) / [Opening, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/3/) / 80

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 3, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He set it in front of him, and whilst he was looking at it attentively, such a thick smoke came out that he had to step back a pace or two.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sire, thick smoke · **What happens:** set, look, come out, have, step back · **To what, where:** knife, front, pace

<!-- .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 (sire, thick smoke), 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:pg128:3:80
# text = He set it in front of him, and whilst he was looking at it attentively, such a thick smoke came out that he had to step back a pace or two.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	set	set	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	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
10	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
16	attentively	attentively	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
18	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	21	det:predet	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	smoke	smoke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
23	out	out	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	step	step	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	back	back	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	pace	pace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set** | past | sire | knife |  | front of Fisherman |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme in front=Destination |
| 2 | **look** | past · progressive | sire |  |  |  |  | at knife; attentively *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at it=Theme |
| 3 | **come out** | past | such thick smoke |  |  |  |  | out *property* | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **have** | past | sire |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **step back** | to-infinitive | sire *not said here* | a pace |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location pace=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/3/79/)
- next →: [sentence 81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/3/81/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/3/)