---
title: When he had knocked down the whole sepulchre he proceeded to dig at… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: When he had knocked down the whole sepulchre he proceeded to dig at the earth, and beneath where the sepulchre had been I saw a trap-door. Who acts: prince, sepulchre, I. 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 70

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he had knocked down the whole sepulchre he proceeded to dig at the earth, and beneath where the sepulchre had been I saw a trap-door.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince, sepulchre, I · **What happens:** knock down, proceed, dig, be, see · **To what, where:** prince, whole sepulchre, trap door

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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 (prince, sepulchre, I), 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:pg128:7:70
# text = When he had knocked down the whole sepulchre he proceeded to dig at the earth, and beneath where the sepulchre had been I saw a trap-door.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	knocked	knock	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	down	down	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	sepulchre	sepulchre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	proceeded	proceed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	dig	dig	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
18	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	23	advmod	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	sepulchre	sepulchre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	been	be	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	advcl	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	trap	trap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **knock down** | past · perfect · passive |  | prince |  |  |  | the whole sepulchre *obl:unmarked* | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **proceed** | past | prince | the whole sepulchre *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **dig** | to-infinitive | prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the earth | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at earth=Theme |
| 4 | **be** | past · perfect | the sepulchre |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **see** | past | I | a trap door |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer door=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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