---
title: After digging for some time they came upon a golden box fastened wit… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: After digging for some time they came upon a golden box fastened with little clasps. Who acts: pearls. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 43, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 43, sentence 84

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After digging for some time they came upon a golden box fastened with little clasps.

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**Who acts:** pearls · **What happens:** dig, come, fasten · **To what, where:** time, golden box

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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 (pearls), 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:pg128:43:84
# text = After digging for some time they came upon a golden box fastened with little clasps.
1	After	after	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	digging	dig	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
5	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	fastened	fasten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	clasps	clasp	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dig** | gerund |  |  |  |  | time |  | vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **come** | past | pearls *= pearl* | some time *not said here* |  |  |  | upon a golden box | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location time=Theme |
| 3 | **fasten** | participle |  | a golden box *not said here* |  |  |  | with little clasps | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent with clasp=Co-Patient |

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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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