---
title: He was carried before the Sultan, who ordered the executioner to cut… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: He was carried before the Sultan, who ordered the executioner to cut off his head. Who acts: executioner. 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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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 32, sentence 26

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He was carried before the Sultan, who ordered the executioner to cut off his head.

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**Who acts:** executioner · **What happens:** carry, order, cut off · **To what, where:** vizir, executioner, head

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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 (executioner), 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:pg128:32:26
# text = He was carried before the Sultan, who ordered the executioner to cut off his head.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	carried	carry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	before	before	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	ordered	order	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	executioner	executioner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
14	off	off	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry** | past · passive |  | vizir |  |  | before the Sultan |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **order** | past |  | the executioner |  |  |  |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent executioner=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **cut off** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the executioner *not said here* | vizir's head |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality |

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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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