---
title: "My lord," replied the merchants, "however much care is taken to pre… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "My lord," replied the merchants, "however much care is taken to preserve them, they never last beyond the third year. Who acts: lord, merchants. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 37, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 37, sentence 3

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"My lord," replied the merchants, "however much care is taken to preserve them, they never last beyond the third year.

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**Who acts:** lord, merchants · **What happens:** reply, take, preserve, not last · **To what, where:** merchants, much care · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 37. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lord, merchants), 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:pg128:37:3
# text = "My lord," replied the merchants, "however much care is taken to preserve them, they never last beyond the third year.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	lord	lord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	merchants	merchant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	however	however	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	preserve	preserve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	last	last	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
23	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	third	third	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	26	amod	_	_
26	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | My lord | the merchants |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent merchant=Topic |
| 2 | **take** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | much care |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: subject=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **preserve** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | merchants *= merchant* |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **not** **last** *in a quote* | present | merchants *= merchant* |  |  |  | year |  | vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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