---
title: He at once communicated his fears to the Caliph, who exclaimed, ‘By… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He at once communicated his fears to the Caliph, who exclaimed, ‘By Mecca and Medina! it would indeed prove but a poor joke if I had to remain a stork for the remainder of my days! Who acts: Vizier, Caliph, doubt, I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Caliph Stork, wit
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of Caliph Stork, sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He at once communicated his fears to the Caliph, who exclaimed, ‘By Mecca and Medina! it would indeed prove but a poor joke if I had to remain a stork for the remainder of my days!

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**Who acts:** Vizier, Caliph, doubt, I · **What happens:** communicate, exclaim, prove, have, remain, fear · **To what, where:** fears, Caliph, 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 (Vizier, Caliph, doubt, I), 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:pg7277:7:76
# text = He at once communicated his fears to the Caliph, who exclaimed, ‘By Mecca and Medina! it would indeed prove but a poor joke if I had to remain a stork for the remainder of my days!
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	obl	_	_
4	communicated	communicate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	fears	fear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Caliph	Caliph	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	exclaimed	exclaim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	By	by	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Mecca	Mecca	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	Medina	Medina	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	prove	prove	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	joke	joke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
28	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	ccomp	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	remain	remain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	stork	stork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	remainder	remainder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **communicate** | past | Vizier | Vizier's fears | the Caliph |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent fear=Topic to caliph=Recipient |
| 2 | **exclaim** *speech: express* | past | the Caliph |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **prove** | would | doubt |  |  |  |  | by Mecca and Medina; indeed *property* | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **remain** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | a stork |  |  |  | for the remainder of my days | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme stork=Attribute |
| 6 | **fear** |  | Vizier |  |  |  |  |  | nom fear «feeling transitive»: poss=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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