---
title: For myself, I dread him so little that I mean to break his talisman… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: For myself, I dread him so little that I mean to break his talisman in pieces! 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 87

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For myself, I dread him so little that I mean to break his talisman in pieces!

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** dread, mean, break · **To what, where:** man, talisman, pieces

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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:pg128:8:87
# text = For myself, I dread him so little that I mean to break his talisman in pieces!
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	dread	dread	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	mean	mean	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	talisman	talisman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dread** | present | I | man |  |  |  | for myself; little *obl:unmarked* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus for myself=Attribute |
| 2 | **mean** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **break** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | man's talisman |  | pieces |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer talisman=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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