---
title: The accused merchant saw by this time that his condemnation was cert… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The accused merchant saw by this time that his condemnation was certain, and tried to allege something in his defence. Who acts: accused merchant, condemnation, Ali. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 37, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/37/42/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 37, sentence 42

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The accused merchant saw by this time that his condemnation was certain, and tried to allege something in his defence.

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**Who acts:** accused merchant, condemnation, Ali · **What happens:** accuse, see, be, try, allege, condemn · **To what, where:** something, defence

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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 (accused merchant, condemnation, Ali), 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:pg128:37:42
# text = The accused merchant saw by this time that his condemnation was certain, and tried to allege something in his defence.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	accused	accuse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	amod	_	_
3	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	condemnation	condemnation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	allege	allege	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	17	obj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	defence	defence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **accuse** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn suspect-81 «NP V PP.theme S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **see** | past | the accused merchant |  |  |  | time |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** | past | Ali's condemnation |  |  |  |  | certain *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **try** | past | the accused merchant *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **allege** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the accused merchant *not said here* | something |  | Ali's defence |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent something=Topic |
| 6 | **condemn** |  | Ali |  |  |  |  |  | nom condemnation «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 7 | **defend** |  | Ali |  |  |  |  |  | nom defence «process transitive»: poss=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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