---
title: "But there must be something," persisted Prince Bahman, "for you to… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "But there must be something," persisted Prince Bahman, "for you to have changed so much during the short time we have been absent. Who acts: you, we. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/41/67/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 41, sentence 67

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"But there must be something," persisted Prince Bahman, "for you to have changed so much during the short time we have been absent.

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**Who acts:** you, we · **What happens:** be, persist, change · **To what, where:** something, Bahman, short time

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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, we), 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:pg128:41:67
# text = "But there must be something," persisted Prince Bahman, "for you to have changed so much during the short time we have been absent.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
3	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
4	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	_
9	persisted	persist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
10	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod:desc	_	_
11	Bahman	Bahman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux	_	_
18	changed	change	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	much	much	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
21	during	during	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
25	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	cop	_	_
28	absent	absent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | imperative | you *not said here* | something |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **persist** | past |  | Bahman  Prince |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **change** *in a quote* | to-infinitive · perfect | you |  |  |  | time |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present · perfect | we | the short time *not said here* |  |  |  | absent *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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