---
title: He entered her cell and clapped a dagger to her breast, telling her… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: He entered her cell and clapped a dagger to her breast, telling her to rise and do his bidding on pain of death. Who acts: magician. 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 81

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He entered her cell and clapped a dagger to her breast, telling her to rise and do his bidding on pain of death.

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**Who acts:** magician · **What happens:** enter, clap, tell, rise, do, bid · **To what, where:** cell, dagger, breast, Fatima, bidding, pain · **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 (magician), 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:pg128:32:81
# text = He entered her cell and clapped a dagger to her breast, telling her to rise and do his bidding on pain of death.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	entered	enter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	cell	cell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	clapped	clap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	dagger	dagger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	breast	breast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
14	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	rise	rise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	bidding	bidding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **enter** | past | magician | Fatima's cell |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme cell=Destination |
| 2 | **clap** | past | magician *not said here* | a dagger | Fatima's breast |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent dagger=Theme to breast=Recipient |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | magician *not said here* |  | Fatima |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **rise** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | magician *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **do** | infinitive | magician *not said here* | magician's bidding |  | pain of death |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bidding=Eventuality |
| 6 | **bid** |  | magician |  |  |  |  |  | nom bidding «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 7 | **pain** |  |  | death |  |  |  |  | nom pain «state transitive»: of=patient |

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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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