---
title: When the merchant was about to take his leave Ali Baba stopped him,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the merchant was about to take his leave Ali Baba stopped him, saying: “Where are you going, sir, in such haste? Who acts: merchant, Ali Baba, you. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Forty Thieves, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Forty Thieves, sentence 127

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When the merchant was about to take his leave Ali Baba stopped him, saying: “Where are you going, sir, in such haste?

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**Who acts:** merchant, Ali Baba, you · **What happens:** be, take, stop, say, go · **To what, where:** leave, merchant, such haste · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Forty Thieves. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant, Ali Baba, you), 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:pg503:34:127
# text = When the merchant was about to take his leave Ali Baba stopped him, saying: “Where are you going, sir, in such haste?
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	leave	leave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	Ali	Ali	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	Baba	Baba	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	21	advmod	_	_
19	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	haste	haste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the merchant |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | to-infinitive | the merchant *not said here* | merchant's leave |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leave=Theme |
| 3 | **stop** | past | Ali Baba | merchant |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector he=Eventuality |
| 4 | **say** *speech: ask* | gerund | Ali Baba *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **go** *in a quote* | present · progressive | you |  |  | such haste |  | sir *vocative* | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in haste=Location |

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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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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