---
title: "I see nothing in it," replied the king, "except a clever imitation… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "I see nothing in it," replied the king, "except a clever imitation of a real one; and any skilled workman might do as much." Who acts: king, skilled workman. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 37, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 37, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"I see nothing in it," replied the king, "except a clever imitation of a real one; and any skilled workman might do as much."

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**Who acts:** king, skilled workman · **What happens:** see, reply, do, imitate · **To what, where:** nothing, real one · **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 (king, skilled workman), 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:pg128:37:50
# text = "I see nothing in it," replied the king, "except a clever imitation of a real one; and any skilled workman might do as much."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
4	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
9	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	except	except	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	imitation	imitation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	26	det	_	_
25	skilled	skilled	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	workman	workman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	parataxis	_	_
29	as	as	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	much	much	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** *in a quote* | present | the king and a clever imitation of a real one *= king* | nothing |  |  |  | in Horse | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the king and a clever imitation of a real one |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | might | any skilled workman |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **imitate** *in a quote* |  |  | a real one |  |  |  |  | nom imitation «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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