---
title: He drew his sword, and turned to avenge himself, but almost before h… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: He drew his sword, and turned to avenge himself, but almost before he had realised that there was nobody there, he and his horse were two black stones. Who acts: dervish, nobody. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 42, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 42, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He drew his sword, and turned to avenge himself, but almost before he had realised that there was nobody there, he and his horse were two black stones.

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**Who acts:** dervish, nobody · **What happens:** draw, turn, avenge, realise, be · **To what, where:** sword, dervish, two black stones · **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 (dervish, nobody), 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:pg128:42:59
# text = He drew his sword, and turned to avenge himself, but almost before he had realised that there was nobody there, he and his horse were two black stones.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	avenge	avenge	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
14	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	realised	realise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	20	expl	_	_
20	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	ccomp	_	_
21	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	20	nsubj	_	_
22	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
29	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
30	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **draw** | past | dervish | dervish's sword |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sword=Theme |
| 2 | **turn** | past | dervish *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **avenge** | to-infinitive | dervish *not said here* | dervish |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **realise** | past · perfect | dervish |  |  |  |  | almost *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** | past | nobody |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is a** | past | dervish | two black stones |  |  |  |  | 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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