---
title: "I ask nothing better," cried the eldest, "than to have the Sultan's… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "I ask nothing better," cried the eldest, "than to have the Sultan's baker for a husband. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 40, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 40, sentence 45

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"I ask nothing better," cried the eldest, "than to have the Sultan's baker for a husband.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** ask, cry, have · **To what, where:** nothing, eldest, baker · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (I), 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:pg128:40:45
# text = "I ask nothing better," cried the eldest, "than to have the Sultan's baker for a husband.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	obj	_	_
5	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	_
8	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	's	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	baker	baker	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | present | I | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent nothing=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past |  | the eldest |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **have** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | the Sultan's baker |  |  |  | for a husband | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent baker=Patient |

<!-- .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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