---
title: "Alas!" she said "I am the innocent cause of our sorrows," and told… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "Alas!" she said "I am the innocent cause of our sorrows," and told him of the exchange of the lamp. Who acts: princess, our. 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 53

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"Alas!" she said "I am the innocent cause of our sorrows," and told him of the exchange of the lamp.

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**Who acts:** princess, our · **What happens:** say, be, tell, sorrow, exchange · **To what, where:** innocent cause, Aladdin, lamp · **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 (princess, our), 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:pg128:32:53
# text = "Alas!" she said "I am the innocent cause of our sorrows," and told him of the exchange of the lamp.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Alas	alas	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	innocent	innocent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	sorrows	sorrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	iobj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	exchange	exchange	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	lamp	lamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | princess | the innocent cause |  |  |  | of our sorrows | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | princess *not said here* |  | Aladdin |  |  | of the exchange of the lamp | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 4 | **sorrow** *in a quote* |  | our |  |  |  |  |  | nom sorrow «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 5 | **exchange** |  |  | the lamp |  |  |  |  | nom exchange «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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