---
title: "Certainly," I answered, taking the sabre in my hands, and making a… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "Certainly," I answered, taking the sabre in my hands, and making a sign to the princess to fear nothing, as it was my own life that I was about to sacrifice, and not hers. Who acts: I, sign, that. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9, with its dependency
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 9, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Certainly," I answered, taking the sabre in my hands, and making a sign to the princess to fear nothing, as it was my own life that I was about to sacrifice, and not hers.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, sign, that · **What happens:** answer, take, make, fear, be, sacrifice · **To what, where:** sabre, hands, sign, nothing, own life

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (I, sign, that), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg128:9:30
# text = "Certainly," I answered, taking the sabre in my hands, and making a sign to the princess to fear nothing, as it was my own life that I was about to sacrifice, and not hers.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sabre	sabre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	fear	fear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
24	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
29	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	parataxis	_	_
32	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	35	nsubj	_	_
33	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
35	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	parataxis	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	sacrifice	sacrifice	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
40	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	41	advmod	_	_
41	hers	her	PRON	PRP	Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | I |  |  |  |  | certainly *property* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **take** | gerund | I *not said here* | the sabre |  | my hands |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent sabre=Value in hand=Location |
| 3 | **make** | gerund | I *not said here* | a sign |  |  |  | to the princess | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset sign=Product |
| 4 | **fear** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 5 | **is a** | past | sign | my own life |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | past | that |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **sacrifice** | to-infinitive | that *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn contribute-13.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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