---
title: He had spent some years quite happily in the house his father had le… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: He had spent some years quite happily in the house his father had left him, when three nights running he dreamed that an old man had appeared to him, and reproached him for having neglected the duty of a good Mussulman, in delaying so long his pilgrimage to Mecca. Who acts: Merchant, father, three n
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 35, sentence 103

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had spent some years quite happily in the house his father had left him, when three nights running he dreamed that an old man had appeared to him, and reproached him for having neglected the duty of a good Mussulman, in delaying so long his pilgrimage to Mecca.

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**Who acts:** Merchant, father, three nights, old man · **What happens:** spend, leave, run, dream, appear, reproach · **To what, where:** Merchant, house, neglected duty · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Merchant, father, three nights, old man), 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:pg128:35:103
# text = He had spent some years quite happily in the house his father had left him, when three nights running he dreamed that an old man had appeared to him, and reproached him for having neglected the duty of a good Mussulman, in delaying so long his pilgrimage to Mecca.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	spent	spend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
5	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	happily	happily	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
18	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
19	nights	night	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
20	running	run	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	conj	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	dreamed	dream	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
24	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	appeared	appear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	ccomp	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	reproached	reproach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
36	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	33	advcl	_	_
37	neglected	neglect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	39	amod	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	duty	duty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
42	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	Mussulman	mussulman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
45	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
46	delaying	delay	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	36	conj	_	_
47	so	so	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
48	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	46	advmod	_	_
49	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	50	nmod:poss	_	_
50	pilgrimage	pilgrimage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nsubj	_	_
51	to	to	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
52	Mecca	Mecca	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	50	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spend** | past · perfect | Merchant |  |  |  | year | happily *property* | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **leave** | past · perfect | Merchant's father |  | Merchant | the house |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Theme in house=Location |
| 3 | **run** | gerund | three nights |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **dream** | past | Merchant |  |  |  |  |  | vn cognize-85 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **appear** | past · perfect | a old man |  | Merchant |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **reproach** | past | Merchant *not said here* | Merchant |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 7 | **have** | gerund | Merchant *not said here* | the neglected duty of a good Mussulman |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent duty=Patient |
| 8 | **neglect** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn neglect-75.1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **delay** | gerund | Merchant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn delay-53.3-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=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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