---
title: Ali Cogia still tried every means to persuade the merchant to admit… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Ali Cogia still tried every means to persuade the merchant to admit the truth. " Who acts: Ali, every, merchant. 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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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 36, sentence 66

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Ali Cogia still tried every means to persuade the merchant to admit the truth. "

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**Who acts:** Ali, every, merchant · **What happens:** try, mean, persuade, admit · **To what, where:** merchant, truth

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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 (Ali, every, merchant), 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:pg128:36:66
# text = Ali Cogia still tried every means to persuade the merchant to admit the truth. "
1	Ali	Ali	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	Cogia	Cogia	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	still	still	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	nsubj	_	_
6	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	persuade	persuade	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	admit	admit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | Ali |  |  |  | still |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **mean** | present | every |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **persuade** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | every *not said here* | the merchant |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent merchant=Patient clause=Result |
| 4 | **admit** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | the merchant *not said here* | the truth |  |  |  |  | vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent truth=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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