---
title: "But what is the matter with the princess that she needs the dervish… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "But what is the matter with the princess that she needs the dervish's prayers?" asked another voice. Who acts: princess, voice, dervish. 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 66

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"But what is the matter with the princess that she needs the dervish's prayers?" asked another voice.

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**Who acts:** princess, voice, dervish · **What happens:** be, need, ask, pray · **To what, where:** matter, prayers · **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 (princess, voice, dervish), 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:pg128:9:66
# text = "But what is the matter with the princess that she needs the dervish's prayers?" asked another voice.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	ccomp	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	needs	need	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	dervish	dervish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	's	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	prayers	prayer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
19	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	det	_	_
21	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the matter |  |  |  | with the princess | tree rules |
| 2 | **need** *in a quote* | present | princess | the dervish's prayers |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot prayer=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | another voice |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **pray** *in a quote* |  | the dervish |  |  |  |  |  | nom prayer «act 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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