---
title: If it must be so," he said, with a sigh, "take this, and when you ha… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: If it must be so," he said, with a sigh, "take this, and when you have mounted your horse throw the ball in front of you. Who acts: mind, dervish, you. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 42, 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/pg128/42/18/)

<!-- 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 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/42/) / 18

# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 42, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If it must be so," he said, with a sigh, "take this, and when you have mounted your horse throw the ball in front of you.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mind, dervish, you · **What happens:** be, say, take, mount, throw · **To what, where:** this, horse, ball, front · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (mind, dervish, you), 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:pg128:42:18
# text = If it must be so," he said, with a sigh, "take this, and when you have mounted your horse throw the ball in front of you.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	sigh	sigh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
17	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	mounted	mount	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
24	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | must | mind |  |  |  |  | so *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | dervish |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **take** | infinitive |  | this |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=Theme |
| 4 | **mount** | present · perfect | you | your horse |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **throw** | infinitive | you *not said here* | the ball |  | front of you |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent ball=Theme in front=Destination |

<!-- .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 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/42/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/42/19/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/42/)