---
title: There the finest fish in the Tigris were to be found, but fishing wa… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: There the finest fish in the Tigris were to be found, but fishing was strictly forbidden. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 30, sentence 4

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There the finest fish in the Tigris were to be found, but fishing was strictly forbidden.

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**What happens:** find, forbid · **To what, where:** finest fish, fishing

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg128:30:4
# text = There the finest fish in the Tigris were to be found, but fishing was strictly forbidden.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	11	expl	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	finest	fine	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Tigris	Tigris	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	fishing	fishing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
16	strictly	strictly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	forbidden	forbid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past · passive |  | the finest fish in the Tigris |  | there |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 2 | **forbid** | past · passive |  | fishing |  |  |  | strictly *property* | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

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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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