---
title: "Let us play at being the Cadi," said the brightest and quickest of… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "Let us play at being the Cadi," said the brightest and quickest of them all; "I will be the Cadi. Who acts: us, I. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/36/101/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 36, sentence 101

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"Let us play at being the Cadi," said the brightest and quickest of them all; "I will be the Cadi.

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**Who acts:** us, I · **What happens:** let, play, be, say · **To what, where:** us, Cadi · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (us, 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:pg128:36:101
# text = "Let us play at being the Cadi," said the brightest and quickest of them all; "I will be the Cadi.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
3	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Cadi	Cadi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	brightest	bright	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	11	ccomp	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	quickest	quick	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nmod	_	_
18	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
22	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	cop	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Cadi	Cadi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **play** *in a quote* | infinitive | us *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  | the Cadi |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | future | I | the Cadi |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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