---
title: They turned to the east and fell to bowing till their bills touched… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They turned to the east and fell to bowing till their bills touched the ground, but, oh horror--the magic word was quite forgotten, and however often the Caliph bowed and however touchingly his Vizier cried ‘Mu...mu...’ they could not recall it, and the unhappy Chasid and Mansor remained storks as t
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of Caliph Stork, sentence 79

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They turned to the east and fell to bowing till their bills touched the ground, but, oh horror--the magic word was quite forgotten, and however often the Caliph bowed and however touchingly his Vizier cried ‘Mu...mu...’ they could not recall it, and the unhappy Chasid and Mansor remained storks as they were.

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**Who acts:** Mu, bills, Caliph, Vizier, unhappy Chasid · **What happens:** turn, fall, touch, forget, bow, cry · **To what, where:** east, ground, horror, Mu, storks

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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 (Mu, bills, Caliph, Vizier), 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:pg7277:7:79
# text = They turned to the east and fell to bowing till their bills touched the ground, but, oh horror--the magic word was quite forgotten, and however often the Caliph bowed and however touchingly his Vizier cried ‘Mu...mu...’ they could not recall it, and the unhappy Chasid and Mansor remained storks as they were.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	east	east	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	bowing	bowing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
10	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	bills	bill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	20	discourse	_	_
20	horror	horror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
26	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
30	however	however	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	often	often	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	Caliph	Caliph	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
34	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	parataxis	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
36	however	however	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	touchingly	touchingly	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
38	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	Vizier	Vizier	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	40	nsubj	_	_
40	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	conj	_	_
41	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	42	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	Mu	mu	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	...	...	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	mu	mu	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	...	...	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	50	punct	_	_
47	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
48	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	50	aux	_	_
49	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	50	advmod	_	_
50	recall	recall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
51	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	59	punct	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	59	cc	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
55	unhappy	unhappy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	56	amod	_	_
56	Chasid	Chasid	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	59	nsubj	_	_
57	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	58	cc	_	_
58	Mansor	Mansor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	56	conj	_	_
59	remained	remain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
60	storks	stork	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	59	obj	_	_
61	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	63	mark	_	_
62	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	63	nsubj	_	_
63	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	59	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | Mu |  |  | the east |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to east=Trajectory |
| 2 | **fall** | past | Mu *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to bowing | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to bowing=Theme |
| 3 | **touch** | past | Mu's bills | the ground |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ground=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **forget** | past · passive |  | horror and the magic word |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **bow** | past | the Caliph |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | word's Vizier | Mu and mu |  |  |  | touchingly *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mu=Topic |
| 7 | **not** **recall** | could | Mu | ground |  |  |  |  | vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 8 | **remain** | past | the unhappy Chasid and Mansor | storks |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme stork=Attribute |
| 9 | **be** | past | Mu |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 10 | **bill** |  | Mu |  |  |  |  |  | nom bill «communication 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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