--- title: Passing down a lonely street, the Sultan heard women's voices in lou… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics description: Passing down a lonely street, the Sultan heard women's voices in loud discussion; and peeping through a crack in the door, he saw three sisters, sitting on a sofa in a large hall, talking in a very lively and earnest manner. Who acts: Sultan. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andr --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/43/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Arabian Nights Entertainments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/) / [Opening, part 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/) / 43 # The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 40, sentence 43 Passing down a lonely street, the Sultan heard women's voices in loud discussion; and peeping through a crack in the door, he saw three sisters, sitting on a sofa in a large hall, talking in a very lively and earnest manner. **Who acts:** Sultan · **What happens:** pass down, hear, peep, see, sit, talk · **To what, where:** lonely street, voices, loud discussion, three sisters, sofa, lively This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 40. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sultan), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg128:40:43 # text = Passing down a lonely street, the Sultan heard women's voices in loud discussion; and peeping through a crack in the door, he saw three sisters, sitting on a sofa in a large hall, talking in a very lively and earnest manner. 1 Passing pass VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 9 advcl _ _ 2 down down ADP RP _ 1 compound:prt _ _ 3 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 5 det _ _ 4 lonely lonely ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 5 amod _ _ 5 street street NOUN NN Number=Sing 1 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 6 , , PUNCT , _ 1 punct _ _ 7 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 8 det _ _ 8 Sultan Sultan PROPN NNP Number=Sing 9 nsubj _ _ 9 heard hear VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 10 women woman NOUN NNS Number=Plur 12 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 11 's 's PART POS _ 10 case _ _ 12 voices voice NOUN NNS Number=Plur 9 obj _ _ 13 in in ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 14 loud loud ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 15 amod _ _ 15 discussion discussion NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 16 ; ; PUNCT : _ 18 punct _ _ 17 and and CCONJ CC _ 18 cc _ _ 18 peeping peep VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 9 advcl _ _ 19 through through ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 20 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 21 det _ _ 21 crack crack NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obl _ _ 22 in in ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 23 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 24 door door NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 25 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 26 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 nsubj _ _ 27 saw see VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 9 parataxis _ _ 28 three three NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 29 nummod _ _ 29 sisters sister NOUN NNS Number=Plur 27 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 30 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 31 sitting sit VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 27 conj _ _ 32 on on ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 33 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 34 sofa sofa NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obl _ _ 35 in in ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 36 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 37 large large ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 38 amod _ _ 38 hall hall NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 39 , , PUNCT , _ 40 punct _ _ 40 talking talk VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 31 conj _ _ 41 in in ADP IN _ 44 case _ _ 42 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 44 det _ _ 43 very very ADV RB _ 44 advmod _ _ 44 lively lively ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 40 obl _ _ 45 and and CCONJ CC _ 47 cc _ _ 46 earnest earn ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 47 amod _ _ 47 manner manner NOUN NN Number=Sing 44 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 48 . . PUNCT . _ 9 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **pass down** | gerund | the Sultan *not said here* | a lonely street | | | | | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **hear** | past | the Sultan | women's voices | | loud discussion | | | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer voice=Stimulus | | 3 | **peep** | gerund | the Sultan *not said here* | | | | | in the door; through a crack | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent through crack=Theme | | 4 | **see** | past | Sultan | three sisters | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sister=Stimulus | | 5 | **sit** | gerund | Sultan *not said here* | | | a sofa | | in a large hall | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on sofa=Location | | 6 | **talk** | gerund | Sultan *not said here* | | | a lively and earnest manner | | | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/42/) - next →: [sentence 44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/44/) - ↑ back to [Opening, part 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/)