---
title: "Madame," they replied, "it is of course impossible for us to tell w… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "Madame," they replied, "it is of course impossible for us to tell what impression this young man has made on you. Who acts: madame, it, us, impression. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 38, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Madame," they replied, "it is of course impossible for us to tell what impression this young man has made on you.

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**Who acts:** madame, it, us, impression · **What happens:** reply, be, tell, make · **To what, where:** impression, young man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (madame, it, us, impression), 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:pg128:38:23
# text = "Madame," they replied, "it is of course impossible for us to tell what impression this young man has made on you.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Madame	madame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	fixed	_	_
13	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	csubj	_	_
18	what	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	19	det	_	_
19	impression	impression	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
21	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl:relcl	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | madame |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | it |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | us | what impression |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent impression=Recipient |
| 4 | **make** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive | what impression *not said here* | this young man |  |  |  | on you | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |

<!-- .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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