---
title: Their one comfort in their sad plight was the power of flying, and a… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Their one comfort in their sad plight was the power of flying, and accordingly they often flew over the roofs of Bagdad to see what was going on there. Who acts: one comfort, power, Mu. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Caliph Stork, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of Caliph Stork, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Their one comfort in their sad plight was the power of flying, and accordingly they often flew over the roofs of Bagdad to see what was going on there.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** one comfort, power, Mu · **What happens:** be, fly, see, go, comfort, plight · **To what, where:** power, roofs, sad plight · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (one comfort, power, Mu), 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:pg7277:7:86
# text = Their one comfort in their sad plight was the power of flying, and accordingly they often flew over the roofs of Bagdad to see what was going on there.
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	comfort	comfort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	plight	plight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
11	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	accordingly	accordingly	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	often	often	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
19	over	over	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	roofs	roof	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	Bagdad	Bagdad	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
26	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	28	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	ccomp	_	_
29	on	on	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Mu's one comfort in Mu's sad plight | the power |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fly** | gerund | the power *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **fly** | past | Mu |  |  | the roofs of Bagdad |  | accordingly, often *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over roof=Location |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | Mu *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **go** | past · progressive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on there=Location |
| 6 | **comfort** |  | Mu |  |  | Mu's sad plight |  |  | nom comfort «state transitive»: poss=agent in=place |
| 7 | **plight** |  | Mu |  |  |  |  |  | nom plight «state 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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