---
title: It was quite clear that no woman could live upon two or three bread-… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: It was quite clear that no woman could live upon two or three bread-crumbs and a few grains of rice, and I determined to find out how and when she got food. Who acts: woman, I. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 34, sentence 83

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was quite clear that no woman could live upon two or three bread-crumbs and a few grains of rice, and I determined to find out how and when she got food.

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**Who acts:** woman, I · **What happens:** be, live, determine, find out, get · **To what, where:** two bread crumbs, food

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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 (woman, 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:pg128:34:83
# text = It was quite clear that no woman could live upon two or three bread-crumbs and a few grains of rice, and I determined to find out how and when she got food.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	expl	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	7	det	_	_
7	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
10	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
11	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
12	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	conj	_	_
14	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	crumbs	crumb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	grains	grain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	conj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	rice	rice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	determined	determine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	out	out	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	_
30	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
32	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
33	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
35	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | clear *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **live** | could | no woman |  |  | two bread crumbs and a few grains of rice |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon crumb=Location |
| 3 | **determine** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **find out** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **get** | past | woman | food |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer food=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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