---
title: In common politeness the prince could hardly refuse this request, an… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: In common politeness the prince could hardly refuse this request, and the princess set about inventing every kind of amusement for him, and succeeded so well that two months slipped by almost unnoticed, in balls, spectacles and in hunting, of which, when unattended by danger, the princess was passio
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 38, sentence 87

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In common politeness the prince could hardly refuse this request, and the princess set about inventing every kind of amusement for him, and succeeded so well that two months slipped by almost unnoticed, in balls, spectacles and in hunting, of which, when unattended by danger, the princess was passionately fond.

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**Who acts:** prince, princess set, princess · **What happens:** refuse, invent, succeed, slip, unattend, be · **To what, where:** request, common politeness, kind

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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 (prince, princess set, princess), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg128:38:87
# text = In common politeness the prince could hardly refuse this request, and the princess set about inventing every kind of amusement for him, and succeeded so well that two months slipped by almost unnoticed, in balls, spectacles and in hunting, of which, when unattended by danger, the princess was passionately fond.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	common	common	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	politeness	politeness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	refuse	refuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	request	request	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	set	set	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
16	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	inventing	invent	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
18	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	det	_	_
19	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	amusement	amusement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	succeeded	succeed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	26	advmod	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
30	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
31	months	month	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl:unmarked	_	_
32	slipped	slip	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	advcl	_	_
33	by	by	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	unnoticed	unnoticed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	balls	ball	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
40	spectacles	spectacle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	conj	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	hunting	hunting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
45	of	of	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
48	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	49	advmod	_	_
49	unattended	unattend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	parataxis	_	_
50	by	by	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
51	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	nsubj	_	_
55	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	57	cop	_	_
56	passionately	passionately	ADV	RB	_	57	advmod	_	_
57	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refuse** | could | the prince | this request |  | common politeness |  | in balls and spectacles and hunting; the princess set *obl*; hardly *property* | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent request=Theme |
| 2 | **invent** | gerund | the princess set *not said here* | every kind of amusement for prince |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kind=Result |
| 3 | **succeed** | past | the prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **slip** | participle | the prince *not said here* |  |  |  | month | by unnoticed | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **unattend** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | by danger | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | past | the princess |  |  |  |  | fond, passionately *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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