---
title: Now Giafar had something of importance to say to the Caliph, and had… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Now Giafar had something of importance to say to the Caliph, and had no intention of being put off by mere silence, so with another low bow in front of the throne, he began to speak. Who acts: Giafar, mere silence. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32, w
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/32/115/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 32, sentence 115

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now Giafar had something of importance to say to the Caliph, and had no intention of being put off by mere silence, so with another low bow in front of the throne, he began to speak.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Giafar, mere silence · **What happens:** have, say, put off, begin, speak · **To what, where:** something, Caliph, intention · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Giafar, mere silence), 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:pg128:32:115
# text = Now Giafar had something of importance to say to the Caliph, and had no intention of being put off by mere silence, so with another low bow in front of the throne, he began to speak.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	Giafar	Giafar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	importance	importance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Caliph	Caliph	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
15	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	16	det	_	_
16	intention	intention	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
20	off	off	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	mere	mere	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	det	_	_
28	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	bow	bow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	throne	throne	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Giafar | something |  |  | now |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | Giafar *not said here* | something *not said here* | the Caliph |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to caliph=Recipient |
| 3 | **have** | past | Giafar *not said here* | no intention |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent intention=Patient |
| 4 | **put off** | gerund · passive | mere silence | no intention *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **begin** | past | Giafar |  |  |  |  | with another low bow in front of the throne | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | Giafar *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «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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