---
title: Three times the storks bowed their long necks to the sun, which was… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Three times the storks bowed their long necks to the sun, which was just rising over the mountains. Who acts: storks, sun. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/7/168/)

<!-- 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 Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [The Story of Caliph Stork](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/7/) / 168

# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of Caliph Stork, sentence 168

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Three times the storks bowed their long necks to the sun, which was just rising over the mountains.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** storks, sun · **What happens:** bow, rise · **To what, where:** long necks, sun, mountains

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (storks, sun), 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:pg7277:7:168
# text = Three times the storks bowed their long necks to the sun, which was just rising over the mountains.
1	Three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	storks	stork	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	necks	neck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	just	just	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	rising	rise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	acl	_	_
17	over	over	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	mountains	mountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bow** | past | the storks | storks's long necks | the sun |  | time |  | vn curtsey-40.3.3 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent neck=Topic to sun=Recipient |
| 2 | **rise** | past · progressive | the sun |  |  | the mountains |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over mountain=Location |

<!-- .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 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 167](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/7/167/)
- next →: [sentence 169](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/7/169/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Caliph Stork](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/7/)