---
title: Whilst he was trying to find it, he saw on the side of the road a be… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Whilst he was trying to find it, he saw on the side of the road a beautiful lady who was crying bitterly. Who acts: vizir, beautiful lady. 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 47

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Whilst he was trying to find it, he saw on the side of the road a beautiful lady who was crying bitterly.

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**Who acts:** vizir, beautiful lady · **What happens:** try, find, see, cry · **To what, where:** way, side

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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 (vizir, beautiful lady), 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:pg128:4:47
# text = Whilst he was trying to find it, he saw on the side of the road a beautiful lady who was crying bitterly.
1	Whilst	whilst	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	bitterly	bitterly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past · progressive | vizir |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **find** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | vizir *not said here* | way |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 3 | **see** | past | vizir |  |  | the side of the road and a beautiful lady |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | past · progressive | a beautiful lady |  |  |  |  | bitterly *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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