---
title: It’s a pity the stupid creatures were scared away by our laughter, o… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It’s a pity the stupid creatures were scared away by our laughter, or no doubt they would have sung next!’ Who acts: countenance, stupid creatures. 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 74

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It’s a pity the stupid creatures were scared away by our laughter, or no doubt they would have sung next!’

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**Who acts:** countenance, stupid creatures · **What happens:** be, sing · **To what, where:** pity, doubt

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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 (countenance, stupid creatures), 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:pg7277:7:74
# text = It’s a pity the stupid creatures were scared away by our laughter, or no doubt they would have sung next!’
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	stupid	stupid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	scared	scared	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	acl:relcl	_	_
10	away	away	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	laughter	laughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
16	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	17	det	_	_
17	doubt	doubt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux	_	_
21	sung	sing	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
22	next	next	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | countenance | a pity |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the stupid creatures | a pity *not said here* |  |  |  | by our laughter; away, scared *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | would · perfect · passive |  | no doubt |  |  |  | next *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |

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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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