---
title: The merchant, on his side, stuck to his story, and offered to swear… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The merchant, on his side, stuck to his story, and offered to swear solemnly that not only had he never stolen the thousand gold pieces, but that he did not even know they were there. Who acts: Ali, pieces. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36, with its 
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 36, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The merchant, on his side, stuck to his story, and offered to swear solemnly that not only had he never stolen the thousand gold pieces, but that he did not even know they were there.

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**Who acts:** Ali, pieces · **What happens:** stick, offer, swear, not have, not steal, not know · **To what, where:** merchant, thousand gold pieces · **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 (Ali, pieces), 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:pg128:36:88
# text = The merchant, on his side, stuck to his story, and offered to swear solemnly that not only had he never stolen the thousand gold pieces, but that he did not even know they were there.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	stuck	stick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	offered	offer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	swear	swear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	solemnly	solemnly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
20	only	only	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	stolen	steal	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	ccomp	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
26	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
27	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
30	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
33	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
34	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	36	advmod	_	_
35	even	even	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
37	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
38	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
39	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	36	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stick** | participle |  | the merchant and Ali's side *not said here* |  |  |  | to Ali's story | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent to story=Co-Patient |
| 2 | **offer** | participle · passive |  | the merchant and Ali's side |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **swear** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | solemnly *property* | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **have** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **steal** | participle | Ali | the thousand gold pieces |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location piece=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | Ali |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **is** | past | pieces *= piece* |  |  |  |  | there *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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