---
title: In spite of her anger, there was something so comic in the groans of… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: In spite of her anger, there was something so comic in the groans of the porter that Zobeida could not refrain from laughing. Who acts: something, Zobeida, vizir, porter. 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 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In spite of her anger, there was something so comic in the groans of the porter that Zobeida could not refrain from laughing.

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**Who acts:** something, Zobeida, vizir, porter · **What happens:** be, not refrain, laugh, spite, anger, groan · **To what, where:** spite, porter, anger

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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 (something, Zobeida, vizir, porter), 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:pg128:7:24
# text = In spite of her anger, there was something so comic in the groans of the porter that Zobeida could not refrain from laughing.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	anger	anger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
8	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	8	nsubj	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	comic	comic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	groans	groan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	Zobeida	Zobeida	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	refrain	refrain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	acl	_	_
23	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | something |  |  | spite of vizir's anger; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in spite=Location |
| 2 | **not** **refrain** | could | Zobeida | the porter *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **laugh** | gerund | Zobeida *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **spite** |  |  | vizir's anger |  |  |  |  | nom spite «feeling transitive»: of=patient |
| 5 | **anger** |  | vizir |  |  |  |  |  | nom anger «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **groan** |  | the porter |  |  |  |  |  | nom groan «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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