---
title: When they were out of earshot, he said to the vizir, "There must be… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: When they were out of earshot, he said to the vizir, "There must be something very odd to make that man act so--I should like to find out what is the reason. Who acts: alms, oath, man. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 33, with its dependency tree and th
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/33/13/)

<!-- 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 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/33/) / 13

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 33, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they were out of earshot, he said to the vizir, "There must be something very odd to make that man act so--I should like to find out what is the reason.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** alms, oath, man · **What happens:** be, say, make, act, like, find out · **To what, where:** earshot, vizir, something, man, reason · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 33. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (alms, oath, man), 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:pg128:33:13
# text = When they were out of earshot, he said to the vizir, "There must be something very odd to make that man act so--I should like to find out what is the reason.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
4	out	out	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	earshot	earshot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	vizir	vizir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	17	expl	_	_
16	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
18	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	12	appos	_	_
19	very	very	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	odd	odd	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl	_	_
23	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	det	_	_
24	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	act	act	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	out	out	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	_
34	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	37	nsubj	_	_
35	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | alms *= alm* |  |  | earshot |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme out earshot=Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | oath |  | the vizir |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to vizir=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | something |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | oath *not said here* | that man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **act** *in a quote* | infinitive | that man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **like** *in a quote* | should | oath |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 7 | **find out** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | oath *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the reason |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/33/12/)
- next →: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/33/14/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/33/)