---
title: They heard him to the end, and inquired of the merchant what he had… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: They heard him to the end, and inquired of the merchant what he had to say. Who acts: words, Ali, 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/36/79/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 36, sentence 79

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They heard him to the end, and inquired of the merchant what he had to say.

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**Who acts:** words, Ali, merchant · **What happens:** hear, inquire, have, say · **To what, where:** Ali, merchant · **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 (words, Ali, 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:pg128:36:79
# text = They heard him to the end, and inquired of the merchant what he had to say.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	inquired	inquire	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	obj	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | words *= word* | Ali |  |  | to the end |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 2 | **inquire** *speech: other* | participle | words *= word* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of the merchant | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent of merchant=Recipient |
| 3 | **have** | past | Ali | the merchant |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the merchant *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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