---
title: The poor man was dumb with horror, then, lifting up his hands, he ex… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor man was dumb with horror, then, lifting up his hands, he exclaimed, "Can my old friend really have committed such a crime?" Who acts: poor man, man, old friend. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 36, sentence 55

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The poor man was dumb with horror, then, lifting up his hands, he exclaimed, "Can my old friend really have committed such a crime?"

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**Who acts:** poor man, man, old friend · **What happens:** be, lift up, exclaim, commit · **To what, where:** hands, crime · **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 (poor man, man, old friend), 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:pg128:36:55
# text = The poor man was dumb with horror, then, lifting up his hands, he exclaimed, "Can my old friend really have committed such a crime?"
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	dumb	dumb	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	horror	horror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	lifting	lift	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
12	up	up	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	exclaimed	exclaim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	Can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
21	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
24	really	really	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	committed	commit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	parataxis	_	_
27	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	29	det:predet	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	crime	crime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the poor man |  |  |  |  | with horror; dumb *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **lift up** | gerund | the poor man *not said here* | man's hands |  |  | then |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 3 | **exclaim** *speech: express* | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **commit** *in a quote* | can · perfect | my old friend | such crime |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crime=Theme |

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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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