---
title: I longed to tell them what had become of the prince, about whose fat… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: I longed to tell them what had become of the prince, about whose fate they felt the most dreadful anxiety, but the oath I had sworn kept me silent. Who acts: I, excuses, oath, prince. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 7, sentence 84

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I longed to tell them what had become of the prince, about whose fate they felt the most dreadful anxiety, but the oath I had sworn kept me silent.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, excuses, oath, prince · **What happens:** long, tell, become, feel, swear, keep · **To what, where:** excuses, prince, dreadful anxiety, oath, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (I, excuses, oath, prince), 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:pg128:7:84
# text = I longed to tell them what had become of the prince, about whose fate they felt the most dreadful anxiety, but the oath I had sworn kept me silent.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	longed	long	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	ccomp	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	about	about	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
14	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	fate	fate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	appos	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
19	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	20	advmod	_	_
20	dreadful	dreadful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	anxiety	anxiety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	oath	oath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	sworn	swear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	acl:relcl	_	_
29	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
30	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **long** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | excuses *= excuse* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **become** | past · perfect |  | the prince |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **feel** | past | excuses *= excuse* | the dreadful anxiety |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anxiety=Theme |
| 5 | **swear** | past · perfect | I | the oath *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent oath=Eventuality |
| 6 | **keep** | past | the oath | me |  |  |  | silent *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 7 | **fate** |  | the prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom fate «event transitive»: poss=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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