---
title: The grand-vizir fulfilled his commission, and hardly giving them tim… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The grand-vizir fulfilled his commission, and hardly giving them time to change their dresses, desired the three sisters to follow him to the palace. Who acts: grand vizir. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 40, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/55/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / 55

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 40, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The grand-vizir fulfilled his commission, and hardly giving them time to change their dresses, desired the three sisters to follow him to the palace.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** grand vizir · **What happens:** fulfil, give, change, desire, follow · **To what, where:** commission, ladies, dresses, three sisters, vizir, palace

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (grand vizir), 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:pg128:40:55
# text = The grand-vizir fulfilled his commission, and hardly giving them time to change their dresses, desired the three sisters to follow him to the palace.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	grand	grand	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	vizir	vizir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	fulfilled	fulfil	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	commission	commission	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
10	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	giving	give	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	acl	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	dresses	dress	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
19	desired	desire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fulfil** | past | the grand vizir | vizir's commission |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **give** | gerund |  |  | ladies *= lady* |  | time | hardly *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 3 | **change** | to-infinitive |  | ladies's dresses |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dress=Patient |
| 4 | **desire** | past | the grand vizir *not said here* | the three sisters |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot sister=Theme |
| 5 | **follow** | to-infinitive | the grand vizir *not said here* | vizir |  | the palace |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Theme to palace=Trajectory |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/54/)
- next →: [sentence 56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/56/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/)