---
title: "Madam," replied the slave, "who can help laughing to see an old foo… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "Madam," replied the slave, "who can help laughing to see an old fool offering to exchange fine new lamps for old ones?" Who acts: Madam, old fool. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/32/12/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 32, sentence 12

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"Madam," replied the slave, "who can help laughing to see an old fool offering to exchange fine new lamps for old ones?"

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**Who acts:** Madam, old fool · **What happens:** reply, help, laugh, see, offer, exchange · **To what, where:** slave, old fool, fine new lamps · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Madam, old fool), 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:pg128:32:12
# text = "Madam," replied the slave, "who can help laughing to see an old fool offering to exchange fine new lamps for old ones?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Madam	madam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
13	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	xcomp	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	offering	offer	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	acl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	exchange	exchange	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
23	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	lamps	lamp	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: ask* | past | Madam | the slave |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **help** *in a quote* | can |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **laugh** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | a old fool |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer fool=Stimulus |
| 5 | **offer** *in a quote* | gerund | a old fool *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **exchange** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | a old fool *not said here* | fine new lamps |  |  |  | for old ones | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent lamp=Theme for one=Co-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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