---
title: The old man, who seemed to understand what she wanted, vanished into… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man, who seemed to understand what she wanted, vanished into the house, and returned bringing a large jar of wine, which the porter placed in his basket. Who acts: old man, porter, large jar. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6, with its dependen
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 6, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old man, who seemed to understand what she wanted, vanished into the house, and returned bringing a large jar of wine, which the porter placed in his basket.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old man, porter, large jar · **What happens:** seem, understand, want, vanish, return, bring · **To what, where:** house, large jar, porter, basket

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, porter, large jar), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg128:6:11
# text = The old man, who seemed to understand what she wanted, vanished into the house, and returned bringing a large jar of wine, which the porter placed in his basket.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
6	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	vanished	vanish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
20	bringing	bring	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	xcomp	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	jar	jar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	wine	wine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
30	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	acl	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	basket	basket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **understand** | to-infinitive | the old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 3 | **want** | past | porter |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **vanish** | past | porter *not said here* |  |  | the house |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **return** | past | the old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **bring** | gerund | the old man *not said here* | a large jar of wine and the porter |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent jar=Theme |
| 7 | **porter** |  | a large jar of wine and the porter |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **place** | participle |  | the porter *not said here* |  | man's basket |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in basket=Destination |

<!-- .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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