---
title: I was scarcely more than a baby, when the king my father, finding me… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: I was scarcely more than a baby, when the king my father, finding me unusually quick and clever for my age, turned his thoughts to my education. Who acts: I, king, my. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 8, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I was scarcely more than a baby, when the king my father, finding me unusually quick and clever for my age, turned his thoughts to my education.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, king, my · **What happens:** be, father, find, turn, think, educate · **To what, where:** baby, me, thoughts, education

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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 (I, king, 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:pg128:8:30
# text = I was scarcely more than a baby, when the king my father, finding me unusually quick and clever for my age, turned his thoughts to my education.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
3	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
4	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	7	advmod	_	_
5	than	than	ADP	IN	_	4	fixed	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	finding	find	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
16	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	unusually	unusually	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	xcomp	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	thoughts	thought	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	education	education	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | I | a baby and my father |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **father** |  | the king |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **find** | gerund | I *not said here* | me |  |  |  | quick *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Topic |
| 4 | **turn** | past |  | King's thoughts |  | my education |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent thought=Theme to education=Trajectory |
| 5 | **think** |  | King |  |  |  |  |  | nom thought «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **educate** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom education «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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