---
title: I answered, “Mock not thy servant, who is but as a worm before thee;… — Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth · tree and pragmatics
description: I answered, “Mock not thy servant, who is but as a worm before thee; life and death are in thy hand, and happiness and misery are the daughters of thy will.” Who acts: I, Mock, servant, happiness. A sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, The Story of Omar., with i
---

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# Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth, The Story of Omar., sentence 17

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I answered, “Mock not thy servant, who is but as a worm before thee; life and death are in thy hand, and happiness and misery are the daughters of thy will.”

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**Who acts:** I, Mock, servant, happiness · **What happens:** answer, not servant, be · **To what, where:** hand, daughters · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, The Story of Omar.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Mock, servant, happiness), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62868:7:17
# text = I answered, “Mock not thy servant, who is but as a worm before thee; life and death are in thy hand, and happiness and misery are the daughters of thy will.”
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Mock	mock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
7	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	worm	worm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
16	before	before	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
22	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
28	happiness	happiness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	misery	misery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	_
31	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	daughters	daughter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	appos	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **servant** *in a quote* |  | Mock |  |  |  |  | thy *nmod:poss*; life and death *conj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | thy servant but a worm and life and death |  |  |  | before thee | as a worm | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | thy servant but a worm and life and death |  |  | thy hand |  | thy *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | happiness and misery | the daughters |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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:** «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, Project Gutenberg book 62868 (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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