---
title: I did my best to turn them also from their purpose, but it was of no… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: I did my best to turn them also from their purpose, but it was of no use. Who acts: I, purpose, men. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 42, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 42, sentence 10

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I did my best to turn them also from their purpose, but it was of no use.

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**Who acts:** I, purpose, men · **What happens:** do, turn, be, purpose · **To what, where:** best, men, purpose

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 42. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, purpose, men), 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:pg128:42:10
# text = I did my best to turn them also from their purpose, but it was of no use.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	also	also	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	purpose	purpose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	18	det	_	_
18	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | I | my best |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality |
| 2 | **turn** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | men *= man* |  | men's purpose |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent they=Theme from purpose=Trajectory |
| 3 | **is** | past | purpose |  |  |  |  | of no use | tree rules |
| 4 | **purpose** |  | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | nom purpose «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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