---
title: When the merchant opened the vase he found the topmost olives were r… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: When the merchant opened the vase he found the topmost olives were rotten, and in order to see if the under ones were in better condition he shook some out into the dish. Who acts: merchant, husband, topmost olives, ones. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, par
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 36, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the merchant opened the vase he found the topmost olives were rotten, and in order to see if the under ones were in better condition he shook some out into the dish.

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**Who acts:** merchant, husband, topmost olives, ones · **What happens:** open, find, be, see, shake out · **To what, where:** vase, better condition, some, dish · **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 (merchant, husband, topmost olives, ones), 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:pg128:36:35
# text = When the merchant opened the vase he found the topmost olives were rotten, and in order to see if the under ones were in better condition he shook some out into the dish.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	vase	vase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	topmost	topmost	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	olives	olive	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	rotten	rotten	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	in	in	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	19	mark	_	_
17	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	fixed	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	under	under	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	27	amod	_	_
27	condition	condition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	ccomp	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	shook	shake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	_
30	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	obj	_	_
31	out	out	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
32	into	into	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	dish	dish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | the merchant | the vase |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location vase=Theme |
| 2 | **find** | past | husband |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | the topmost olives |  |  |  |  | rotten *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the ones |  |  | better condition |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **shake out** | past | husband | some |  | the dish |  | out *property* | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent some=Theme into dish=Destination |

<!-- .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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