---
title: "But if he really is a stranger to me," she replied, "why should I t… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "But if he really is a stranger to me," she replied, "why should I tell a lie and cause his death?" Who acts: man, genius. 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 21

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"But if he really is a stranger to me," she replied, "why should I tell a lie and cause his death?"

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**Who acts:** man, genius · **What happens:** be, reply, tell, cause, die · **To what, where:** stranger, genius, lie, death · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (man, genius), 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:pg128:9:21
# text = "But if he really is a stranger to me," she replied, "why should I tell a lie and cause his death?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
3	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
5	really	really	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	ccomp	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
18	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	lie	lie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	cause	cause	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | man | a stranger | genius |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: ask* | past | genius |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | should | genius | a lie |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent lie=Recipient |
| 4 | **cause** *in a quote* | infinitive | genius *not said here* | man's death |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition death=Patient |
| 5 | **die** *in a quote* |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom death «event intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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