---
title: I caught eagerly at these words, as giving me a faint hope of soften… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: I caught eagerly at these words, as giving me a faint hope of softening his wrath. " Who acts: I, faint hope. 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 40

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I caught eagerly at these words, as giving me a faint hope of softening his wrath. "

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**Who acts:** I, faint hope · **What happens:** catch, give, soften · **To what, where:** words, faint hope, me, wrath

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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 (I, faint hope), 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:pg128:9:40
# text = I caught eagerly at these words, as giving me a faint hope of softening his wrath. "
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	eagerly	eagerly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	giving	give	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	faint	faint	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	hope	hope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
14	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
15	softening	soften	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	acl	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	wrath	wrath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | I |  |  | this words |  | eagerly *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent at word=Asset |
| 2 | **give** | gerund | I *not said here* | a faint hope | me |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient hope=Theme |
| 3 | **soften** | gerund | a faint hope *not said here* | bird's wrath |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent wrath=Patient |

<!-- .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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