---
title: But on the brink he paused a moment and called to Ciccu, ‘Tell me, C… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But on the brink he paused a moment and called to Ciccu, ‘Tell me, Ciccu, how did you manage to prevent the fire burning you?’ Who acts: king, you, fire. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 39, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 39, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But on the brink he paused a moment and called to Ciccu, ‘Tell me, Ciccu, how did you manage to prevent the fire burning you?’

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**Who acts:** king, you, fire · **What happens:** pause, call, tell, manage, prevent, burn · **To what, where:** brink, moment, Ciccu, me, fire, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 39. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, you, fire), 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:pg5615:39:7
# text = But on the brink he paused a moment and called to Ciccu, ‘Tell me, Ciccu, how did you manage to prevent the fire burning you?’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	on	on	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	brink	brink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	paused	pause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Ciccu	Ciccu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
16	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	Ciccu	Ciccu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
21	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	manage	manage	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	prevent	prevent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	acl	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pause** | past | king |  |  | the brink | moment |  | vn linger-53.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on brink=Location |
| 2 | **call** | participle |  | a moment *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | king *not said here* | Ciccu | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 4 | **manage** | past · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **prevent** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | the fire |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer fire=Theme |
| 6 | **burn** | gerund | the fire *not said here* | you |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent you=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.

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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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