---
title: Bill, feeble and squeaky, says "something comes at me like a Jack-in… — Alice in Wonderland, chapter IV, part 2: Little… · tree and pragmatics
description: Bill, feeble and squeaky, says "something comes at me like a Jack-in-the-box, and up I goes like a sky-rocket!"; a Jack-in-the-box is a toy figure that springs out of a box, and a sky-rocket is a firework. Who acts: Bill, something, box, toy figure. A sentence of the lesson «Alice in Wonderland, cha
---

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# Alice in Wonderland, chapter IV, part 2: Little Bill, the pebbles and the puppy, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Bill, feeble and squeaky, says "something comes at me like a Jack-in-the-box, and up I goes like a sky-rocket!"; a Jack-in-the-box is a toy figure that springs out of a box, and a sky-rocket is a firework.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Bill, something, box, toy figure, sky rocket · **What happens:** say, come, go, be, spring out · **To what, where:** toy figure, box, firework · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «Alice in Wonderland, chapter IV, part 2: Little Bill, the pebbles and the puppy» of the books course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Bill, something, box, toy figure), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:books:008-alice-ch4-part2-little-bill.lesson:9
# text = Bill, feeble and squeaky, says "something comes at me like a Jack-in-the-box, and up I goes like a sky-rocket!"; a Jack-in-the-box is a toy figure that springs out of a box, and a sky-rocket is a firework.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = books
# lesson = 008-alice-ch4-part2-little-bill.lesson
# annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): no change
1	Bill	Bill	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	feeble	feeble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	appos	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	squeaky	squeaky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
7	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	_
9	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	10	nsubj	_	_
10	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
13	like	like	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
15	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	flat	_	_
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	_
21	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	up	up	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
27	like	like	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
30	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	_
31	rocket	rocket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
32	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
33	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
34	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
36	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
37	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	42	punct	_	_
38	in	in	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
39	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	38	punct	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	40	punct	_	_
42	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nsubj	_	_
43	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	46	cop	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
45	toy	toy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	compound	_	_
46	figure	figure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	ccomp	_	_
47	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	48	nsubj	_	_
48	springs	spring	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	46	acl:relcl	_	_
49	out	out	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
50	of	of	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
52	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	_
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
54	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	61	cc	_	_
55	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	58	det	_	_
56	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	compound	_	_
57	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	56	punct	_	_
58	rocket	rocket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	61	nsubj	_	_
59	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	61	cop	_	_
60	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
61	firework	firework	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	conj	_	_
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: pos
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: express* | present | Bill |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **come** *in a quote* | present | something |  |  |  |  | at Bill; like a Jack box | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at i=Location |
| 3 | **go** *in a quote* | present | Bill |  |  |  |  | like a sky rocket | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | present | a box | a toy figure and a firework |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **spring out** | present | a toy figure and a firework | a box |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location box=Theme |
| 6 | **is a** | present | a sky rocket | a firework |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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**Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:books:008-alice-ch4-part2-little-bill.lesson:9`.

**The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): no change. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence.

See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/).

<!-- /div -->

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