---
title: His merriest time was when the Grand Vizier visited him in the after… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His merriest time was when the Grand Vizier visited him in the afternoon; and when the Caliph was in particularly high spirits he would condescend to mimic the Vizier’s appearance when he was a stork. Who acts: merriest time, Grand Vizier, Caliph, arrival. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by And
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of Caliph Stork, sentence 187

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His merriest time was when the Grand Vizier visited him in the afternoon; and when the Caliph was in particularly high spirits he would condescend to mimic the Vizier’s appearance when he was a stork.

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**Who acts:** merriest time, Grand Vizier, Caliph, arrival · **What happens:** be, visit, mimic · **To what, where:** arrival, high spirits, appearance, stork

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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 (merriest time, Grand Vizier, Caliph, arrival), 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:pg7277:7:187
# text = His merriest time was when the Grand Vizier visited him in the afternoon; and when the Caliph was in particularly high spirits he would condescend to mimic the Vizier’s appearance when he was a stork.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	merriest	merry	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	Grand	Grand	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	Vizier	Vizier	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	visited	visit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl:relcl	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	afternoon	afternoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Caliph	Caliph	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	particularly	particularly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	spirits	spirit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	condescend	condescend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	mimic	mimic	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	Vizier	Vizier	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’s	's	PART	POS	_	30	case	_	_
32	appearance	appearance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
33	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	37	advmod	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	stork	stork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | arrival's merriest time |  |  |  |  | when *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **visit** | past | the Grand Vizier | arrival |  |  | afternoon |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **is** | would · past | the Caliph |  |  | high spirits |  | condescend *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **mimic** | to-infinitive | the Caliph *not said here* | the Vizier's appearance |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** | past | arrival | a stork |  |  |  |  | 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:** «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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