---
title: Whoever shall snuff the powder in this box, and at the same time sha… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Whoever shall snuff the powder in this box, and at the same time shall pronounce the word “Mutabor!” can transform himself into any creature he likes, and will understand the language of all animals. Who acts: Whoever, word. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Caliph St
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of Caliph Stork, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whoever shall snuff the powder in this box, and at the same time shall pronounce the word “Mutabor!” can transform himself into any creature he likes, and will understand the language of all animals.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Whoever, word · **What happens:** snuff, pronounce, transform, like, understand · **To what, where:** powder, box, word, creature, language

<!-- .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 (Whoever, word), 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:pg7277:7:30
# text = Whoever shall snuff the powder in this box, and at the same time shall pronounce the word “Mutabor!” can transform himself into any creature he likes, and will understand the language of all animals.
1	Whoever	whoever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
2	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	snuff	snuff	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	powder	powder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
15	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	pronounce	pronounce	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	Mutabor	Mutabor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
23	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	transform	transform	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
25	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	24	obj	_	_
26	into	into	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	det	_	_
28	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	likes	like	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	understand	understand	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	39	det	_	_
39	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **snuff** | shall | Whoever | the powder |  | this box |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pronounce** | shall | Whoever *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **transform** | can | the word | word |  |  |  | into any creature *result* | vn turn-26.6.1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent himself=Patient into creature=Result |
| 4 | **like** | present | word | any creature *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot creature=Theme |
| 5 | **understand** | future |  | the language of all animals |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer language=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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