---
title: The storks seemed rather taken aback by this suggestion, and the Cal… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The storks seemed rather taken aback by this suggestion, and the Caliph beckoned to his Vizier to retire and consult with him. Who acts: suggestion, Caliph. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Caliph Stork, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of Caliph Stork, sentence 143

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The storks seemed rather taken aback by this suggestion, and the Caliph beckoned to his Vizier to retire and consult with him.

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**Who acts:** suggestion, Caliph · **What happens:** take, beckon, retire, consult · **To what, where:** storks, Vizier

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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 (suggestion, Caliph), 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:pg7277:7:143
# text = The storks seemed rather taken aback by this suggestion, and the Caliph beckoned to his Vizier to retire and consult with him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	storks	stork	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	aback	aback	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	suggestion	suggestion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Caliph	Caliph	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	beckoned	beckon	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	Vizier	Vizier	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	retire	retire	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	consult	consult	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past · passive | this suggestion | the storks |  |  |  | aback *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument subject=Destination |
| 2 | **beckon** | past | the Caliph |  | command's Vizier |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to vizier=Recipient |
| 3 | **retire** | to-infinitive | the Caliph *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn resign-10.11-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **consult** | infinitive | the Caliph *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with command | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with he=Co-Agent |

<!-- .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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