---
title: They then turned to the porter to see if he could explain the myster… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: They then turned to the porter to see if he could explain the mystery, but the porter was no wiser than they were themselves. Who acts: Calenders, lord, porter. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/7/9/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 7, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They then turned to the porter to see if he could explain the mystery, but the porter was no wiser than they were themselves.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Calenders, lord, porter · **What happens:** turn, see, explain, not be, be · **To what, where:** porter, mystery, Calenders

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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 (Calenders, lord, porter), 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:pg128:7:9
# text = They then turned to the porter to see if he could explain the mystery, but the porter was no wiser than they were themselves.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	explain	explain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	mystery	mystery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	no	no	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	wiser	wise	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	conj	_	_
22	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | Calenders *= calender* |  |  | the porter | then |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to porter=Trajectory |
| 2 | **see** | to-infinitive | Calenders *= calender* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **explain** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen* | could | lord | the mystery |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mystery=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **is** | past | the porter |  |  |  |  | wise *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** | past | Calenders *= calender* | Calenders *= calender* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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