---
title: My brother," I said firmly, "pray say no more, but do what I ask. — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: My brother," I said firmly, "pray say no more, but do what I ask. Who acts: brother, I. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/34/15/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 34, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
My brother," I said firmly, "pray say no more, but do what I ask.

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**Who acts:** brother, I · **What happens:** say, pray, do, ask · **To what, where:** more · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brother, I), 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:pg128:34:15
# text = My brother," I said firmly, "pray say no more, but do what I ask.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	firmly	firmly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	pray	pray	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
11	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
12	no	no	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	obj	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | My brother |  |  |  |  | firmly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **pray** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive |  | more |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent more=Topic |
| 4 | **do** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=Recipient |

<!-- .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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