---
title: As they drew near, the Sultan was startled by the sound of strange v… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: As they drew near, the Sultan was startled by the sound of strange voices, but could see nothing. " Who acts: house, sound. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 44, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 44, sentence 17

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As they drew near, the Sultan was startled by the sound of strange voices, but could see nothing. "

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**Who acts:** house, sound · **What happens:** draw, startle, see · **To what, where:** Sultan, nothing

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 44. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (house, sound), 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:pg128:44:17
# text = As they drew near, the Sultan was startled by the sound of strange voices, but could see nothing. "
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
4	near	near	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	startled	startle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	voices	voice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	see	see	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
20	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
22	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **draw** | past | house |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **startle** | past · passive | the sound of strange voices | the Sultan |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus subject=Experiencer |
| 3 | **see** | could |  | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |

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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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