---
title: In reply to my affectionate words, I expected a cheerful answer; yet… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: In reply to my affectionate words, I expected a cheerful answer; yet Amina said nothing at all, but continued to pick her rice as before, only at longer and longer intervals. Who acts: I, Amina, my. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34, with its dependen
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 34, sentence 77

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In reply to my affectionate words, I expected a cheerful answer; yet Amina said nothing at all, but continued to pick her rice as before, only at longer and longer intervals.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, Amina, my · **What happens:** expect, say, continue, pick, word · **To what, where:** cheerful answer, reply, nothing, all, rice · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (I, Amina, my), 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:pg128:34:77
# text = In reply to my affectionate words, I expected a cheerful answer; yet Amina said nothing at all, but continued to pick her rice as before, only at longer and longer intervals.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	reply	reply	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	affectionate	affectionate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	expected	expect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	cheerful	cheerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	Amina	Amina	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
17	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	16	obj	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	pick	pick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	rice	rice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	before	before	ADV	RB	_	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	only	only	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
31	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	24	advmod	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
34	longer	long	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	35	amod	_	_
35	intervals	interval	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **expect** | past | I | a cheerful answer |  | reply to my affectionate words |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent answer=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Amina | nothing |  | all |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic |
| 3 | **continue** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn continue-55.3 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **pick** | to-infinitive |  | Amina's rice |  |  |  | long *property* | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rice=Patient |
| 5 | **word** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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