---
title: Suddenly Zobeida turned round, and seeing their excitement she said,… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Suddenly Zobeida turned round, and seeing their excitement she said, "What is the matter--what are you all discussing so earnestly?" Who acts: Zobeida, question, matter. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 7, sentence 13

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Suddenly Zobeida turned round, and seeing their excitement she said, "What is the matter--what are you all discussing so earnestly?"

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**Who acts:** Zobeida, question, matter · **What happens:** turn round, see, say, be, discuss, excite · **To what, where:** excitement, matter, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Zobeida, question, matter), 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:pg128:7:13
# text = Suddenly Zobeida turned round, and seeing their excitement she said, "What is the matter--what are you all discussing so earnestly?"
1	Suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	Zobeida	Zobeida	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	round	round	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
7	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	csubj	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	excitement	excitement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	nsubj	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	21	nsubj	_	_
20	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	conj	_	_
22	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	nmod:unmarked	_	_
23	discussing	discuss	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	earnestly	earnestly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn round** | past | Zobeida |  |  |  |  | round, suddenly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | gerund |  | Zobeida's excitement |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer excitement=Stimulus |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | question |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the matter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the matter | you |  |  |  | all *nmod:unmarked* | tree rules |
| 6 | **discuss** *speech: other* *in a quote* | gerund | question *not said here* |  |  |  |  | earnestly *property* | vn chit\_chat-37.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **excite** |  | Zobeida |  |  |  |  |  | nom excitement «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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