---
title: He knew that the poor tailor's son could only have accomplished this… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: He knew that the poor tailor's son could only have accomplished this by means of the lamp, and travelled night and day till he reached the capital of China, bent on Aladdin's ruin. Who acts: magician, Aladdin. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32, with i
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/32/2/)

<!-- 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 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/32/) / 2

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 32, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He knew that the poor tailor's son could only have accomplished this by means of the lamp, and travelled night and day till he reached the capital of China, bent on Aladdin's ruin.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** magician, Aladdin · **What happens:** know, accomplish, mean, travel, reach, bend · **To what, where:** son, capital, ruin · **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 (magician, Aladdin), 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:pg128:32:2
# text = He knew that the poor tailor's son could only have accomplished this by means of the lamp, and travelled night and day till he reached the capital of China, bent on Aladdin's ruin.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	tailor	tailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	only	only	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux	_	_
12	accomplished	accomplish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	nsubj	_	_
13	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	obj	_	_
14	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	lamp	lamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	travelled	travel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
22	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl:unmarked	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
25	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	capital	capital	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	China	China	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
33	bent	bend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	acl	_	_
34	on	on	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	Aladdin	Aladdin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	37	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	's	's	PART	POS	_	35	case	_	_
37	ruin	ruin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | magician |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **accomplish** | could · perfect · passive |  | the poor tailor's son |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **mean** | present |  |  |  |  |  | of the lamp | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **travel** | past | magician *not said here* |  |  |  | night |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **reach** | past | magician | the capital of China |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent capital=Theme |
| 6 | **bend** | participle |  | the capital of China *not said here* |  | Aladdin's ruin |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ruin=Location |
| 7 | **ruin** |  | Aladdin |  |  |  |  |  | nom ruin «state transitive»: poss=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.

<!-- 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 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/32/1/)
- next →: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/32/3/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/32/)