---
title: At these words Baba-Abdalla flung himself at the Caliph's feet, and… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: At these words Baba-Abdalla flung himself at the Caliph's feet, and prayed that honour and happiness might be his portion for ever. Who acts: Baba, honour. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/34/41/)

<!-- 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 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/34/) / 41

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 34, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At these words Baba-Abdalla flung himself at the Caliph's feet, and prayed that honour and happiness might be his portion for ever.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Baba, honour · **What happens:** fling, pray, be · **To what, where:** Abdalla, words, portion

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Baba, honour), 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:pg128:34:41
# text = At these words Baba-Abdalla flung himself at the Caliph's feet, and prayed that honour and happiness might be his portion for ever.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
4	Baba	Baba	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Abdalla	Abdalla	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
7	flung	fling	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Caliph	Caliph	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	's	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	_
13	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	prayed	pray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
18	honour	honour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	happiness	happiness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
21	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	cop	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	portion	portion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	ccomp	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fling** | past | Baba and Abdalla | Abdalla |  | this words |  | at the Caliph's feet | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent himself=Theme at word=Destination |
| 2 | **pray** | past | Baba and Abdalla *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for ever=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | might | honour and happiness | Caliph's portion |  |  |  |  | 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 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/34/40/)
- next →: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/34/42/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/34/)