---
title: Throwing himself on the ground at the Caliph's feet, he said: "Comma… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Throwing himself on the ground at the Caliph's feet, he said: "Commander of the Faithful, your miserable slave has offended you, and craves forgiveness." Who acts: hand, Commander. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 30, sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Throwing himself on the ground at the Caliph's feet, he said: "Commander of the Faithful, your miserable slave has offended you, and craves forgiveness."

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**Who acts:** hand, Commander · **What happens:** throw, say, offend, crave · **To what, where:** hand, ground, Commander, miserable slave, forgiveness · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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: who acts (hand, Commander), 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:pg128:30:48
# text = Throwing himself on the ground at the Caliph's feet, he said: "Commander of the Faithful, your miserable slave has offended you, and craves forgiveness."
1	Throwing	throw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
2	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	1	obj	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Caliph	Caliph	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	Commander	Commander	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Faithful	faithful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	miserable	miserable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	offended	offend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl:relcl	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	craves	crave	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
30	forgiveness	forgiveness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw** | gerund | hand *not said here* | hand |  | the ground |  | at the Caliph's feet | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent himself=Theme on ground=Destination |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | hand | Commander of the Faithful |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **offend** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive | Commander of the Faithful *not said here* | your miserable slave |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer you=Result |
| 4 | **crave** *in a quote* | present |  | forgiveness |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot forgiveness=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.

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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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