---
title: He sold off everything almost directly, and bought a stock of Egypti… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: He sold off everything almost directly, and bought a stock of Egyptian curiosities, which he intended selling at Damascus; but as the caravan with which he would have to travel would not be starting for another six weeks, he took advantage of the delay to visit the Pyramids, and some of the cities a
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/36/18/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Arabian Nights Entertainments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/) / [Opening, part 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/36/) / 18

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 36, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He sold off everything almost directly, and bought a stock of Egyptian curiosities, which he intended selling at Damascus; but as the caravan with which he would have to travel would not be starting for another six weeks, he took advantage of the delay to visit the Pyramids, and some of the cities along the banks of the Nile.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Ali · **What happens:** sell off, buy, intend, sell, have, travel · **To what, where:** everything, stock, Egyptian curiosities, Damascus, advantage, Pyramids

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Ali), 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:pg128:36:18
# text = He sold off everything almost directly, and bought a stock of Egyptian curiosities, which he intended selling at Damascus; but as the caravan with which he would have to travel would not be starting for another six weeks, he took advantage of the delay to visit the Pyramids, and some of the cities along the banks of the Nile.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sold	sell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	off	off	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	2	obj	_	_
5	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	directly	directly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	bought	buy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	stock	stock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	Egyptian	Egyptian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	curiosities	curiosity	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	obj	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	intended	intend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
19	selling	sell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	xcomp	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Damascus	Damascus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	44	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	caravan	caravan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obl	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	obl	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	acl:relcl	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	travel	travel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
35	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	37	advmod	_	_
36	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	aux	_	_
37	starting	start	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	33	advcl	_	_
38	for	for	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	41	det	_	_
40	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	41	nummod	_	_
41	weeks	week	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
43	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
44	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
45	advantage	advantage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obj	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	delay	delay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	_
49	to	to	PART	TO	_	50	mark	_	_
50	visit	visit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	advcl	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
52	Pyramids	pyramid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
54	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	55	cc	_	_
55	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	44	conj	_	_
56	of	of	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
57	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	58	det	_	_
58	cities	city	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	55	nmod	_	_
59	along	along	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
60	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
61	banks	bank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	55	nmod	_	_
62	of	of	ADP	IN	_	64	case	_	_
63	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	64	det	_	_
64	Nile	Nile	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	61	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sell off** | past | Ali | everything |  |  |  | directly *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent everything=Theme |
| 2 | **buy** | past | Ali *not said here* | a stock of Egyptian curiosities |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stock=Theme |
| 3 | **intend** | past | Ali | Egyptian curiosities |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **sell** *not said to happen* | gerund | Ali *not said here* |  |  | Damascus |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent at damascus=Asset |
| 5 | **have** | would | Ali |  |  |  |  | with the caravan | tree rules |
| 6 | **travel** | to-infinitive | Ali *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **not** **start** | would · progressive | Ali *not said here* |  |  |  | week |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 8 | **take** | past | Ali | advantage of the delay |  |  |  | as the caravan | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent advantage=Theme as caravan=Attribute |
| 9 | **visit** | to-infinitive | Ali *not said here* | the Pyramids |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pyramid=Co-Agent |
| 10 | **stock** |  |  | Egyptian curiosities |  |  |  |  | nom stock «possession transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/36/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/36/19/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/36/)