---
title: "Madam," said the dervish, "they are far more beautiful than any des… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "Madam," said the dervish, "they are far more beautiful than any description, but you seem ignorant of all the difficulties that stand in your way, or you would hardly have undertaken such an adventure. Who acts: Madam, descriptions, you, difficulties. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainment
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 42, sentence 68

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Madam," said the dervish, "they are far more beautiful than any description, but you seem ignorant of all the difficulties that stand in your way, or you would hardly have undertaken such an adventure.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Madam, descriptions, you, difficulties · **What happens:** say, be, seem, stand, undertake · **To what, where:** dervish, ignorant, way, adventure · **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 (Madam, descriptions, you, difficulties), 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:pg128:42:68
# text = "Madam," said the dervish, "they are far more beautiful than any description, but you seem ignorant of all the difficulties that stand in your way, or you would hardly have undertaken such an adventure.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Madam	madam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	dervish	dervish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
11	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	13	advmod	_	_
13	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	14	advmod	_	_
14	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
15	than	than	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
17	description	description	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	seem	seem	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
22	ignorant	ignorant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	26	det:predet	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	difficulties	difficulty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	stand	stand	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
33	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
34	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
35	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
36	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
37	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	aux	_	_
38	undertaken	undertake	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	parataxis	_	_
39	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	41	det:predet	_	_
40	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	adventure	adventure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Madam | the dervish |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | descriptions *= description* |  |  |  |  | than any description; beautiful *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **seem** *in a quote* | present | you | ignorant of all difficulties |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ignorant=Attribute |
| 4 | **stand** *in a quote* | present | all difficulties |  |  | your way |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in way=Location |
| 5 | **undertake** *in a quote* | would · perfect | you | such adventure |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent adventure=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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