---
title: Then, as before, he came down with the swiftness of lightning, and w… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Then, as before, he came down with the swiftness of lightning, and we touched the ground on a mountain top. Who acts: earth, we. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 9, sentence 105

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Then, as before, he came down with the swiftness of lightning, and we touched the ground on a mountain top.

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**Who acts:** earth, we · **What happens:** come down, touch · **To what, where:** ground

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (earth, we), 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:pg128:9:105
# text = Then, as before, he came down with the swiftness of lightning, and we touched the ground on a mountain top.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	as	as	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	before	before	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	down	down	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	swiftness	swiftness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come down** | past | earth |  |  |  | then | with the swiftness of lightning; before, down *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **touch** | past | we | the ground |  |  |  | on a mountain top | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.theme PP.instrument»: agent=Agent ground=Experiencer on top=Theme |

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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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