---
title: The dervish himself could see nothing, but he took for granted that… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The dervish himself could see nothing, but he took for granted that something strange had happened, or he must certainly have been dashed against the side of the well and been killed. Who acts: dervish, something. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9, wit
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 9, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The dervish himself could see nothing, but he took for granted that something strange had happened, or he must certainly have been dashed against the side of the well and been killed.

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**Who acts:** dervish, something · **What happens:** see, take, happen, dash, kill · **To what, where:** nothing, dervish

<!-- .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 (dervish, something), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg128:816`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg128:9:59
# text = The dervish himself could see nothing, but he took for granted that something strange had happened, or he must certainly have been dashed against the side of the well and been killed.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dervish	dervish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	2	nmod:unmarked	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	obj	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	granted	granted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	obl	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	17	nsubj	_	_
15	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	ccomp	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
22	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
23	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux	_	_
24	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	dashed	dash	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
26	against	against	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	well	well	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	34	aux:pass	_	_
34	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	conj	_	_
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | could | the dervish  dervish | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 2 | **take** | past | dervish |  |  |  |  | for granted | vn require-103 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Precondition |
| 3 | **happen** | past · perfect | something |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **dash** | must · perfect · passive |  | dervish |  |  |  | against the side of the well; certainly *property* | vn hit-18.1 «NP V NP PP»: subject=Instrument against side=Patient |
| 5 | **kill** | participle · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» |

<!-- .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:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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