---
title: The fisherman, who had never before possessed such a large sum of mo… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The fisherman, who had never before possessed such a large sum of money at once, could hardly believe his good fortune. Who acts: fisherman. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 5, sentence 4

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The fisherman, who had never before possessed such a large sum of money at once, could hardly believe his good fortune.

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**Who acts:** fisherman · **What happens:** possess, believe, sum · **To what, where:** fisherman, good fortune, money

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fisherman), 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:pg128:5:4
# text = The fisherman, who had never before possessed such a large sum of money at once, could hardly believe his good fortune.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fisherman	fisherman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
6	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	before	before	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	possessed	possess	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl:relcl	_	_
9	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	12	det:predet	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	sum	sum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	fortune	fortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **possess** | past · perfect · passive |  | the fisherman |  |  |  | before *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **believe** | could | the fisherman | fisherman's good fortune |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer fortune=Stimulus |
| 3 | **sum** |  |  | money |  |  |  |  | nom sum «possession transitive»: of=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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