---
title: At first he could not believe his eyes, and stared at the ladder of… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first he could not believe his eyes, and stared at the ladder of bones, and at the little finger on the top of it. Who acts: husband. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Pig, sentence 185

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At first he could not believe his eyes, and stared at the ladder of bones, and at the little finger on the top of it.

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**Who acts:** husband · **What happens:** not believe, stare · **To what, where:** eyes

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (husband), 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:pg540:12:185
# text = At first he could not believe his eyes, and stared at the ladder of bones, and at the little finger on the top of it.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	6	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	ladder	ladder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **believe** | could | husband | husband's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer eye=Stimulus |
| 2 | **stare** | past |  |  |  |  |  | at the little finger on the top of top; at the ladder of bones | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at ladder=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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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