---
title: The Sultan, who was persuaded that there could not be any such thing… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Sultan, who was persuaded that there could not be any such thing as such a tent as he asked for, was in a great surprise at the Prince’s diligence. Who acts: Sultan, father. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 4, with its de
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/52/41/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fair…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/52/) / 41

# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 4, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Sultan, who was persuaded that there could not be any such thing as such a tent as he asked for, was in a great surprise at the Prince’s diligence.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Sultan, father · **What happens:** persuade, not be, ask, be · **To what, where:** Sultan, such thing, great surprise

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sultan, father), 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:pg503:52:41
# text = The Sultan, who was persuaded that there could not be any such thing as such a tent as he asked for, was in a great surprise at the Prince’s diligence.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	persuaded	persuade	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl:relcl	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advcl	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	cop	_	_
12	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
13	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
15	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	18	det:predet	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	tent	tent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’s	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	_
33	diligence	diligence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **persuade** | past · passive |  | the Sultan |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | could | the Sultan | any such thing |  |  |  | as such tent | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past |  |  |  | a great surprise |  | at the Prince's diligence | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/52/40/)
- next →: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/52/42/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/52/)