---
title: The following day a grand dinner was served to us but as my wife did… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The following day a grand dinner was served to us but as my wife did not appear, I ordered a servant to call her. Who acts: wife, I, servant. 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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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 34, sentence 68

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The following day a grand dinner was served to us but as my wife did not appear, I ordered a servant to call her.

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**Who acts:** wife, I, servant · **What happens:** follow, serve, not appear, order, call · **To what, where:** grand dinner, us, servant, behaviour · **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 (wife, I, servant), 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:pg128:34:68
# text = The following day a grand dinner was served to us but as my wife did not appear, I ordered a servant to call her.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	following	follow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	amod	_	_
3	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	grand	grand	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	served	serve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	appear	appear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	ordered	order	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
25	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **follow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **serve** | past · passive |  | a grand dinner | us |  | day |  | vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Theme to we=Recipient |
| 3 | **not** **appear** | past · do-support | my wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **order** | past | I | a servant |  |  |  |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent servant=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **call** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a servant *not said here* |  | behaviour |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=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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