--- title: Alice in Wonderland, chapter VI, part 1: The footmen and the Duchess's kitchen — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Alice in Wonderland, chapter VI, part 1: The footmen and the Duchess's kitchen», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Nine-inch Alice watches a footman with a face like a fish hand a giant letter to a footman wi --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/) / Alice in Wonderland, chapter VI, part… # Alice in Wonderland, chapter VI, part 1: The footmen and the Duchess's kitchen Lesson 11 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 25 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/0/) — Nine-inch Alice watches a footman with a face like a fish hand a giant letter to a footman with a face like a frog: the Queen invites the Duchess to play croquet. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/1/) — When they bow, their curly wigs get tangled, and Alice has to run off to hide her laughter. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/2/) — When she knocks, the Frog-Footman explains, very seriously and very stupidly, why knocking is useless, and doesn't even blink when a plate flies out and just misses his nose. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/3/) — Alice gives up on him and walks straight in, into a smoky kitchen where the air is so full of pepper that everyone sneezes: the Duchess, nursing a howling baby, a cook stirring soup, and a big cat grinning from ear to ear. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/5/) — Then the Duchess sings the baby a horrible lullaby about beating a boy when he sneezes, shaking him at every line: noisy, rude and crazy, a kitchen where nobody behaves the way grown-ups should. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/6/) — A footman is a servant who opens doors and carries messages; livery is the uniform servants of a great house wore; both footmen have powdered hair curled all over their heads. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/7/) — Alice thinks one is a footman "because he was in livery: otherwise, judging by his face only, she would have called him a fish"; the other has "a round face, and large eyes like a frog". - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/8/) — The Fish-Footman brings a letter "nearly as large as himself": "For the Duchess. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/9/) — An invitation from the Queen to play croquet." - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/10/) — The Frog-Footman repeats it "only changing the order of the words a little": "From the Queen. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/12/) — When they both bow low, "their curls got entangled together", and Alice laughs so much she runs back into the wood. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/13/) — When Alice comes back, the Frog-Footman is sitting on the ground near the door, "staring stupidly up into the sky"; from inside comes "a constant howling and sneezing", and now and then a great crash. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/14/) — The Footman says there's no use knocking for two reasons: "First, because I'm on the same side of the door as you are; secondly, because they're making such a noise inside, no one could possibly hear you." - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/15/) — A plate comes "skimming out, straight at the Footman's head", grazes his nose (just scrapes it) and breaks, and he goes on talking "exactly as if nothing had happened": "I shall sit here till tomorrow—or next day, maybe." - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/16/) — Alice mutters "It's really dreadful, the way all the creatures argue. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/17/) — It's enough to drive one crazy!", calls him "perfectly idiotic", and goes in. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/18/) — The kitchen is full of smoke; the Duchess sits on a three-legged stool nursing a baby, and the cook stirs a large cauldron (a big cooking pot) of soup. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/19/) — "There's certainly too much pepper in that soup!", says Alice; only the cook and the cat do not sneeze. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/20/) — The Duchess says "It's a Cheshire cat, and that's why. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/21/) — Pig!" (shouting "Pig!" at the baby) and tells Alice "You don't know much, and that's a fact"; Alice says "I didn't know that cats could grin"; Cheshire is a county in England, and "to grin like a Cheshire cat" was an old saying. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/22/) — The cook throws fire-irons, saucepans, plates and dishes at the Duchess and the baby; the Duchess takes no notice of them, even when they hit her, and Alice cries "Oh, there goes his precious nose!"; this grinning cat is nothing like Alice's Dinah, who, she told the Mouse, sits "purring so nicely by the fire". - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/23/) — The Duchess says "If everybody minded their own business, the world would go round a deal faster than it does", and Alice, "very glad to get an opportunity of showing off a little of her knowledge", explains the earth takes twenty-four hours to turn on its axis (which is true). - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/24/) — The Duchess answers "Talking of axes, chop off her head!", a pun on axis and axes (chopping tools), and later "I never could abide figures!" ("abide" = stand, "figures" = numbers). - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/25/) — The Duchess's lullaby says "Speak roughly to your little boy, And beat him when he sneezes: He only does it to annoy, Because he knows it teases"; it is a silly, shocking twist of a gentle old poem, and hitting children is cruel and wrong. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/26/) — Old words in today's English: "uncivil" = rude, "most of 'em" = most of them, "a deal faster" = much faster, "severely" = harshly, "in an agony of terror" = terribly frightened. - ← previous: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter V, part 2: The mushroom, the long neck and the Pigeon](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/10-alice-ch5-part2-the-pigeon/) - next →: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter VI, part 2: The baby, the pig and the Cheshire Cat](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)