---
title: It was sunset, and I paused for a little to look about me, and to de… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: It was sunset, and I paused for a little to look about me, and to decide which way to turn my steps. Who acts: length, I, my. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg128/8/18/)

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 8, sentence 18

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It was sunset, and I paused for a little to look about me, and to decide which way to turn my steps.

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**Who acts:** length, I, my · **What happens:** be, pause, look, decide, turn, step · **To what, where:** sunset, way, steps

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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: who acts (length, I, my), 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:pg128:8:18
# text = It was sunset, and I paused for a little to look about me, and to decide which way to turn my steps.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	sunset	sunset	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	paused	pause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	obl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
13	about	about	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	decide	decide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
19	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	20	det	_	_
20	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
23	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | length | sunset |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pause** | past | I | sunset *not said here* |  |  |  | for a little | tree rules |
| 3 | **look** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about me | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent about i=Theme |
| 4 | **decide** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | which way |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.co-agent that S»: agent=Agent way=Co-Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **turn** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | my steps |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent step=Theme |
| 6 | **step** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom step «act 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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