---
title: Just as the pedlar was about to close his box, the Caliph noticed a… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Just as the pedlar was about to close his box, the Caliph noticed a small drawer, and asked if there was anything else in it for sale. Who acts: pedlar, Caliph, anything. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Caliph Stork, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of Caliph Stork, sentence 14

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Just as the pedlar was about to close his box, the Caliph noticed a small drawer, and asked if there was anything else in it for sale.

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**Who acts:** pedlar, Caliph, anything · **What happens:** be, close, notice, ask · **To what, where:** box, small drawer

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Caliph Stork. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pedlar, Caliph, anything), 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:pg7277:7:14
# text = Just as the pedlar was about to close his box, the Caliph noticed a small drawer, and asked if there was anything else in it for sale.
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	pedlar	pedlar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	close	close	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Caliph	Caliph	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	noticed	notice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	drawer	drawer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	23	expl	_	_
23	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	ccomp	_	_
24	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	23	nsubj	_	_
25	else	else	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nmod	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	sale	sale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the pedlar |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **close** | to-infinitive | the pedlar *not said here* | slave's box |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent box=Patient |
| 3 | **notice** | past | the Caliph | a small drawer |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer drawer=Stimulus |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the Caliph *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **be** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | anything |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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