---
title: “You couldn’t have wanted it much,” said Alice; “living at the botto… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “You couldn’t have wanted it much,” said Alice; “living at the bottom of the sea.” Who acts: You, Alice. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story, sentence 109

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“You couldn’t have wanted it much,” said Alice; “living at the bottom of the sea.”

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**Who acts:** You, Alice · **What happens:** not want, say, live · **To what, where:** music, bottom · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, Alice), 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:pg11:10:109
# text = “You couldn’t have wanted it much,” said Alice; “living at the bottom of the sea.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	aux	_	_
6	wanted	want	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	much	much	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	living	live	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **want** *in a quote* | could · perfect | You | music |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot it=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Alice |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **live** *in a quote* | gerund | Alice *not said here* |  |  | the bottom of the sea |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at bottom=Location |

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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:** «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Project Gutenberg book 11 (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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