The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 41, sentence 92

The dervish did his best to reply, but his moustache was so thick that his words were hardly intelligible, and the prince, perceiving what was the matter, took a pair of scissors from his saddle pockets, and requested permission to cut off some of the moustache, as he had a question of great importance to ask the dervish.

Who acts: dervish, moustache, words, matter, prince · What happens: do, reply, be, perceive, take, request · To what, where: best, pair, saddle pockets, permission, some, question

This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 41. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dervish, moustache, words, matter), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dervish	det
2	dervish	dervish	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 best	nmod:poss
5	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	3 did	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 reply	mark
7	reply	reply	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 did	advcl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 thick	punct
9	but	but	CCONJ	_	14 thick	cc
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 moustache	nmod:poss
11	moustache	moustache	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 thick	nsubj
12	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 thick	cop
13	so	so	ADV	_	14 thick	advmod
14	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 did	parataxis
15	that	that	SCONJ	_	20 intelligible	mark
16	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 words	nmod:poss
17	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 intelligible	nsubj
18	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	20 intelligible	cop
19	hardly	hardly	ADV	_	20 intelligible	advmod
20	intelligible	intelligible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 thick	advcl
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 prince	punct
22	and	and	CCONJ	_	24 prince	cc
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 prince	det
24	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 thick	conj
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 perceiving	punct
26	perceiving	perceive	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 thick	conj
27	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	26 perceiving	obj
28	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	27 what	cop
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 matter	det
30	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 what	nsubj
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	32 took	punct
32	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 did	conj
33	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	34 pair	det
34	pair	pair	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 took	obj
35	of	of	ADP	_	36 scissors	case
36	scissors	scissors	NOUN	Number=Plur	34 pair	nmod
37	from	from	ADP	_	40 pockets	case
38	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	40 pockets	nmod:poss
39	saddle	saddle	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 pockets	compound
40	pockets	pocket	NOUN	Number=Plur	32 took	obl
41	,	,	PUNCT	_	43 requested	punct
42	and	and	CCONJ	_	43 requested	cc
43	requested	request	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	32 took	parataxis
44	permission	permission	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 requested	obj
45	to	to	PART	_	46 cut	mark
46	cut	cut	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	43 requested	xcomp
47	off	off	ADP	_	46 cut	compound:prt
48	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	46 cut	obj
49	of	of	ADP	_	51 moustache	case
50	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	51 moustache	det
51	moustache	moustache	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 some	nmod
52	,	,	PUNCT	_	55 had	punct
53	as	as	SCONJ	_	55 had	mark
54	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	55 had	nsubj
55	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	43 requested	conj
56	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	57 question	det
57	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	55 had	obj
58	of	of	ADP	_	60 importance	case
59	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	60 importance	amod
60	importance	importance	NOUN	Number=Sing	57 question	nmod
61	to	to	PART	_	62 ask	mark
62	ask	ask	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	55 had	advcl
63	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	64 dervish	det
64	dervish	dervish	NOUN	Number=Sing	62 ask	obj
65	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	do	past	the dervish	dervish's best			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality
2	reply speech: assert	to-infinitive	the dervish not said here				vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is	past	dervish's moustache			thick property	tree rules
4	is	past	dervish's words			hardly, intelligible property	tree rules
5	perceive	gerund	dervish's moustache not said here				vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
6	is a	past	the matter				tree rules
7	take	past	the dervish not said here	a pair of scissors	prince's saddle pockets		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent pair=Theme from pocket=Initial_Location
8	request	past		permission			vn beg-58.2 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent permission=Recipient clause=Topic
9	cut off	to-infinitive		some			vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector some=Eventuality
10	have	past	prince	a question of great importance			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent question=Patient
11	ask speech: ask	to-infinitive	prince not said here	the dervish			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent dervish=Recipient
12	word		dervish				nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent
13	question			great importance			nom question «communication transitive»: of=patient

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.

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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