---
title: "Sire," replied the bird, before either the princes or the princess… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "Sire," replied the bird, before either the princes or the princess could speak, "surely your Highness cannot be so surprised at beholding a cucumber stuffed with pearls, when you believed without any difficulty that the Sultana had presented you, instead of children, with a dog, a cat, and a log of
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 44, sentence 48

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"Sire," replied the bird, before either the princes or the princess could speak, "surely your Highness cannot be so surprised at beholding a cucumber stuffed with pearls, when you believed without any difficulty that the Sultana had presented you, instead of children, with a dog, a cat, and a log of wood."

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**Who acts:** Sire, princes, Highness, you · **What happens:** reply, speak, not be, behold, stuff, believe · **To what, where:** bird, cucumber, Sultana · **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 (Sire, princes, Highness, you), 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:pg128:44:48
# text = "Sire," replied the bird, before either the princes or the princess could speak, "surely your Highness cannot be so surprised at beholding a cucumber stuffed with pearls, when you believed without any difficulty that the Sultana had presented you, instead of children, with a dog, a cat, and a log of wood."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Sire	sire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	replied	reply	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	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
9	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
10	either	either	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc:preconj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	princes	prince	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
13	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
21	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	Highness	highness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
23	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	cop	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	surprised	surprised	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	conj	_	_
28	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
29	beholding	behold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	cucumber	cucumber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	stuffed	stuff	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	acl	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	pearls	pearl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
36	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	38	advmod	_	_
37	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	believed	believe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
39	without	without	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	41	det	_	_
41	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
42	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	Sultana	Sultana	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	46	nsubj:pass	_	_
45	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
46	presented	present	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	38	ccomp	_	_
47	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	46	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
49	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	51	case	_	_
50	of	of	ADP	IN	_	49	fixed	_	_
51	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
53	with	with	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	_
57	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	58	det	_	_
58	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	62	punct	_	_
60	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	62	cc	_	_
61	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	62	det	_	_
62	log	log	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	_
63	of	of	ADP	IN	_	64	case	_	_
64	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	62	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	62	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	62	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | Sire | the bird |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | could | the princes or the princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | can | your Highness |  |  |  |  | surely, surprised *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **behold** *in a quote* | gerund | your Highness *not said here* | a cucumber |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer cucumber=Stimulus |
| 5 | **stuff** *in a quote* | participle |  | a cucumber *not said here* |  |  |  | with pearls | vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent with pearl=Theme |
| 6 | **believe** *in a quote* | past | you |  |  |  |  | without any difficulty | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 7 | **present** *in a quote* | past · perfect · passive |  | the Sultana |  |  |  | instead children | tree rules |

<!-- .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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