---
title: A novelty, indeed!" cried he, "but I do not understand the reason of… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: A novelty, indeed!" cried he, "but I do not understand the reason of it; one cannot eat pearls!" Who acts: novelty, I, one. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/44/47/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 44, sentence 47

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A novelty, indeed!" cried he, "but I do not understand the reason of it; one cannot eat pearls!"

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**Who acts:** novelty, I, one · **What happens:** cry, not understand, not eat · **To what, where:** reason, pearls · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (novelty, I, one), 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:pg128:44:47
# text = A novelty, indeed!" cried he, "but I do not understand the reason of it; one cannot eat pearls!"
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	novelty	novelty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
7	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	one	one	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
25	pearls	pearl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* *in a quote* | past | a novelty |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **understand** | present · do-support | I | the reason of reason |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer reason=Stimulus |
| 3 | **not** **eat** | can | one | pearls |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pearl=Patient |

<!-- .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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