---
title: The other sisters also tried to excuse themselves, but the Sultan wo… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The other sisters also tried to excuse themselves, but the Sultan would hear nothing. Who acts: other sisters, Sultan. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 40, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/65/)

<!-- 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/) / 65

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 40, sentence 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The other sisters also tried to excuse themselves, but the Sultan would hear nothing.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** other sisters, Sultan · **What happens:** try, excuse, hear · **To what, where:** Sisters, nothing

<!-- .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 (other sisters, Sultan), 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:pg128:40:65
# text = The other sisters also tried to excuse themselves, but the Sultan would hear nothing.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	also	also	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	excuse	excuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
15	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | the other sisters |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **excuse** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the other sisters *not said here* | Sisters *= sister* |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme |
| 3 | **hear** | would | the Sultan | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/64/)
- next →: [sentence 66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/66/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/)