---
title: He took him on his knee and seized the opportunity to pull seven whi… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: He took him on his knee and seized the opportunity to pull seven white hairs out of his tail, and put them on one side till they were needed. Who acts: dervish. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 9, sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He took him on his knee and seized the opportunity to pull seven white hairs out of his tail, and put them on one side till they were needed.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dervish · **What happens:** take, seize, pull, put, need · **To what, where:** guest, knee, opportunity, seven white hairs, tail, hairs

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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 (dervish), 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:pg128:9:76
# text = He took him on his knee and seized the opportunity to pull seven white hairs out of his tail, and put them on one side till they were needed.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	knee	knee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	opportunity	opportunity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	pull	pull	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl	_	_
13	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
14	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	hairs	hair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
16	out	out	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
27	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
29	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	needed	need	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | dervish | guest |  | dervish's knee |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme on knee=Destination |
| 2 | **seize** | past | dervish *not said here* | the opportunity |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent opportunity=Theme |
| 3 | **pull** | to-infinitive | dervish *not said here* | seven white hairs |  | dervish's tail |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent hair=Theme out tail=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **put** | infinitive | dervish *not said here* | hairs *= hair* |  | one side |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme on side=Destination |
| 5 | **need** | past · passive |  | hairs *= hair* |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme |

<!-- .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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