---
title: But since you ask me, I must confess that it lacks three things to m… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: But since you ask me, I must confess that it lacks three things to make it absolutely perfect." Who acts: you, I, fault. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 41, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 41, sentence 49

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But since you ask me, I must confess that it lacks three things to make it absolutely perfect."

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**Who acts:** you, I, fault · **What happens:** ask, confess, lack, make · **To what, where:** me, three things, fault

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 41. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, I, fault), 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:pg128:41:49
# text = But since you ask me, I must confess that it lacks three things to make it absolutely perfect."
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	confess	confess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	lacks	lack	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
13	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	absolutely	absolutely	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	perfect	perfect	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | you |  | me |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 2 | **confess** | must | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lack** | present | fault | three things |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** | to-infinitive | fault *not said here* | fault |  |  |  | perfect *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product |

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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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