---
title: They threw themselves from their horses and prostrated themselves to… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: They threw themselves from their horses and prostrated themselves to the earth, but the Sultan was curious to see their faces, and commanded them to rise. Who acts: people, Sultan. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 43, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 43, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They threw themselves from their horses and prostrated themselves to the earth, but the Sultan was curious to see their faces, and commanded them to rise.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, Sultan · **What happens:** throw, prostrate, be, see, command, rise · **To what, where:** people, faces · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 43. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, Sultan), 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:pg128:43:29
# text = They threw themselves from their horses and prostrated themselves to the earth, but the Sultan was curious to see their faces, and commanded them to rise.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obj	_	_
4	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	prostrated	prostrate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	8	obj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	faces	face	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	rise	rise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw** | past | people | people |  |  |  | from people's horses | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme from horse=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **prostrate** | past | people *not said here* | people |  |  |  | to the earth | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | the Sultan |  |  |  |  | curious *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | the Sultan *not said here* | people's faces |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer face=Stimulus |
| 5 | **command** | past | people *not said here* | people |  |  |  |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **rise** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «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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