---
title: ‘We can always try,’ answered Ciccu; ‘and if times are bad we can co… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘We can always try,’ answered Ciccu; ‘and if times are bad we can come back here and take up wood-cutting.’ Who acts: We, times. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37, sentence 52

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‘We can always try,’ answered Ciccu; ‘and if times are bad we can come back here and take up wood-cutting.’

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**Who acts:** We, times · **What happens:** try, answer, be, come back, take up · **To what, where:** Ciccu, wood cutting

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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 (We, times), 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:pg5615:37:52
# text = ‘We can always try,’ answered Ciccu; ‘and if times are bad we can come back here and take up wood-cutting.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	5	advmod	_	_
5	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
8	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
9	Ciccu	Ciccu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
15	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	advcl	_	_
17	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
20	back	back	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
24	up	up	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	cutting	cutting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | can | We |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | Ciccu |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent ciccu=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | times |  |  |  |  | bad *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **come back** | can | we |  |  | here |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **take up** | infinitive | we *not said here* | wood cutting |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cutting=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 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.

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