---
title: "My lord," returned the olive merchants, "we can assure you that the… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "My lord," returned the olive merchants, "we can assure you that the olives are those of the present year. Who acts: lord, olive, we, olives. 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 8

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"My lord," returned the olive merchants, "we can assure you that the olives are those of the present year.

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**Who acts:** lord, olive, we, olives · **What happens:** return, merchant, assure, be · **To what, where:** you, those

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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, olive, we, olives), 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:pg128:37:8
# text = "My lord," returned the olive merchants, "we can assure you that the olives are those of the present 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	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	olive	olive	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	merchants	merchant	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	assure	assure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	olives	olive	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
19	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	14	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	present	present	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | past | My lord |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **merchant** | present | the olive |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **assure** *in a quote* | can | we |  | you |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the olives | those |  |  | year |  | tree rules |

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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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