---
title: When at last a little boy, beautiful as the sun, was born, they laid… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: When at last a little boy, beautiful as the sun, was born, they laid him in his cradle and carried it down to a canal which passed through the grounds of the palace. Who acts: plotters, canal. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 40, with its dependency tre
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/81/)

<!-- 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/) / 81

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 40, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When at last a little boy, beautiful as the sun, was born, they laid him in his cradle and carried it down to a canal which passed through the grounds of the palace.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** plotters, canal · **What happens:** bear, lay, carry down, pass · **To what, where:** last little boy, boy, cradle, canal, grounds

<!-- .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 (plotters, canal), 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:pg128:40:81
# text = When at last a little boy, beautiful as the sun, was born, they laid him in his cradle and carried it down to a canal which passed through the grounds of the palace.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	6	mark	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	cradle	cradle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	down	down	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	canal	canal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
29	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
30	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	acl:relcl	_	_
31	through	through	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	grounds	grounds	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	30	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bear** | past · passive |  | a last little boy |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **lay** | past | plotters *= plotter* | boy |  | boy's cradle |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme in cradle=Destination |
| 3 | **carry down** | past |  | cradle |  | a canal |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme to canal=Destination |
| 4 | **pass** | past | a canal |  |  | the grounds of the palace |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme through grounds=Location |

<!-- .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 80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/80/)
- next →: [sentence 82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/82/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/40/)