---
title: This parrot not only spoke well, but it had the gift of telling all… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: This parrot not only spoke well, but it had the gift of telling all that had been done before it. Who acts: parrot, gift. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 4, sentence 20

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This parrot not only spoke well, but it had the gift of telling all that had been done before it.

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**Who acts:** parrot, gift · **What happens:** not speak, have, tell, do · **To what, where:** gift, that · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (parrot, gift), 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:pg128:4:20
# text = This parrot not only spoke well, but it had the gift of telling all that had been done before it.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	parrot	parrot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	gift	gift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	acl	_	_
15	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	19	det:predet	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	obj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	ccomp	_	_
20	before	before	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **speak** *speech: other* | past | this parrot |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **have** | past | Parrot | the gift |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gift=Patient |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | the gift *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **do** | past · perfect · passive |  | that |  |  | before Parrot |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: that=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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