---
title: "My sister," he said, "why should you think the old woman was deceiv… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "My sister," he said, "why should you think the old woman was deceiving you about these treasures, and what would have been her object in doing so! Who acts: brother, you, old woman, object. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 42, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 42, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"My sister," he said, "why should you think the old woman was deceiving you about these treasures, and what would have been her object in doing so!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** brother, you, old woman, object · **What happens:** say, think, deceive, be, do · **To what, where:** you, object · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (brother, you, old woman, object), 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:pg128:42:45
# text = "My sister," he said, "why should you think the old woman was deceiving you about these treasures, and what would have been her object in doing so!
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
11	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	deceiving	deceive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	ccomp	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	about	about	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
22	treasures	treasure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
25	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	30	nsubj	_	_
26	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
27	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	aux	_	_
28	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	cop	_	_
29	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	object	object	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	ccomp	_	_
31	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
32	doing	do	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	acl	_	_
33	so	so	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: express* | past | brother |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | should | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **deceive** *in a quote* | past · progressive | the old woman | you |  |  |  | about this treasures | vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | would · perfect |  | woman's object |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **do** *in a quote* | gerund | woman's object *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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