---
title: "The women, sire," said the bird, "were the sisters of the Sultana,… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "The women, sire," said the bird, "were the sisters of the Sultana, who were devoured with jealousy at the honour you had done her, and in order to revenge themselves invented this story. Who acts: women, you. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 44, with i
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/44/50/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 44, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"The women, sire," said the bird, "were the sisters of the Sultana, who were devoured with jealousy at the honour you had done her, and in order to revenge themselves invented this story.

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**Who acts:** women, you · **What happens:** say, be, devour, do, invent · **To what, where:** bird, sisters, honour, sire, story, revenge · **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 (women, 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:pg128:44:50
# text = "The women, sire," said the bird, "were the sisters of the Sultana, who were devoured with jealousy at the honour you had done her, and in order to revenge themselves invented this story.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	sire	sire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Sultana	Sultana	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	devoured	devour	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	conj	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	jealousy	jealousy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	honour	honour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
28	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	acl:relcl	_	_
31	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	37	case	_	_
35	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	fixed	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	revenge	revenge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	_
38	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	39	nsubj	_	_
39	invented	invent	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
40	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	41	det	_	_
41	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the women and sire | the bird |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent bird=Topic |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | past |  | the sisters |  |  |  | of the Sultana | tree rules |
| 3 | **devour** *in a quote* | past · passive |  | the sisters |  | the honour |  | with jealousy | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | past · perfect | you | sire |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Eventuality |
| 5 | **invent** *in a quote* | past | women *= woman* | this story |  | revenge |  |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=Result |

<!-- .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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