---
title: Persecuted by ill-fortune, and stricken with grief, there seemed to… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Persecuted by ill-fortune, and stricken with grief, there seemed to be only one means of safety left to me. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 8, sentence 13

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Persecuted by ill-fortune, and stricken with grief, there seemed to be only one means of safety left to me.

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**What happens:** persecute, seem, be, mean, leave · **To what, where:** one, safety, me

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg128:8:13
# text = Persecuted by ill-fortune, and stricken with grief, there seemed to be only one means of safety left to me.
1	Persecuted	persecute	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	nsubj	_	_
2	by	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	fortune	fortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	stricken	stricken	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	conj	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	grief	grief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	13	expl	_	_
13	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	cop	_	_
16	only	only	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	xcomp	_	_
18	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	safety	safety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
21	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **persecute** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | by ill fortune | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **seem** | past |  |  |  | there |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | one |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **mean** | present |  |  |  |  |  | of safety | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **leave** | participle |  | safety *not said here* | me |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to i=Initial\_Location |

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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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