---
title: I was hacking at the root of a tree, when I beheld an iron ring fast… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: I was hacking at the root of a tree, when I beheld an iron ring fastened to a trapdoor of the same metal. Who acts: I. 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 63

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I was hacking at the root of a tree, when I beheld an iron ring fastened to a trapdoor of the same metal.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** hack, behold, fasten · **To what, where:** iron ring

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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), 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:pg128:8:63
# text = I was hacking at the root of a tree, when I beheld an iron ring fastened to a trapdoor of the same metal.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	hacking	hack	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	root	root	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	beheld	behold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	iron	iron	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	fastened	fasten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	trapdoor	trapdoor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	metal	metal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	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 | **hack** | past · progressive | I |  |  |  |  | at the root of a tree | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at root=Patient |
| 2 | **behold** | past | I | a iron ring |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ring=Stimulus |
| 3 | **fasten** | participle |  | a iron ring *not said here* |  |  |  | to a trapdoor of the same metal | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle PP»: agent=Patient to trapdoor=Co-Patient |

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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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