---
title: Ciccu did not answer, but set a ladder against the tree, so that he… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Ciccu did not answer, but set a ladder against the tree, so that he could reach the topmost branches, and had his foot already on the first rung when he heard the voice of his brother Alfin: ‘Stop! the trunk belongs to me, and I forbid you to touch it!’ Who acts: Ciccu, trunk, I. A sentence of «The 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/37/100/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/37/) / 100

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37, sentence 100

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ciccu did not answer, but set a ladder against the tree, so that he could reach the topmost branches, and had his foot already on the first rung when he heard the voice of his brother Alfin: ‘Stop! the trunk belongs to me, and I forbid you to touch it!’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Ciccu, trunk, I · **What happens:** not answer, set, reach, have, hear, stop · **To what, where:** ladder, tree, topmost branches, foot, first rung, voice · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ciccu, trunk, 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:pg5615:37:100
# text = Ciccu did not answer, but set a ladder against the tree, so that he could reach the topmost branches, and had his foot already on the first rung when he heard the voice of his brother Alfin: ‘Stop! the trunk belongs to me, and I forbid you to touch it!’
1	Ciccu	Ciccu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	ladder	ladder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	against	against	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	18	mark	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	fixed	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	topmost	topmost	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	already	already	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
28	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	31	amod	_	_
31	rung	rung	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
32	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
40	Alfin	Alfin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	39	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	43	punct	_	_
42	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	43	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	Stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	47	punct	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nsubj	_	_
47	belongs	belong	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	43	ccomp	_	_
48	to	to	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
49	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
52	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
53	forbid	forbid	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
54	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	53	obj	_	_
55	to	to	PART	TO	_	56	mark	_	_
56	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	53	advcl	_	_
57	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	56	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **answer** *speech: assert* | past · do-support | Ciccu |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **set** | past |  | a ladder |  | the tree |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent ladder=Theme against tree=Destination |
| 3 | **reach** | could | Ciccu | the topmost branches |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent branch=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past |  | Ciccu's foot |  | the first rung |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foot=Patient |
| 5 | **hear** | past | Ciccu | the voice of Ciccu's brother |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer voice=Stimulus |
| 6 | **stop** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 7 | **belong** | present | the trunk |  | me |  |  |  | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **forbid** | present | I | you |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer you=Theme |
| 9 | **touch** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | trunk |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Co-Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/37/99/)
- next →: [sentence 101](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/37/101/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/37/)