---
title: “That’s the reason they’re called lessons,” the Gryphon remarked: “b… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “That’s the reason they’re called lessons,” the Gryphon remarked: “because they lessen from day to day.” Who acts: That, Reeling, reason, Gryphon. 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 ev
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story, sentence 134

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“That’s the reason they’re called lessons,” the Gryphon remarked: “because they lessen from day to day.”

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**Who acts:** That, Reeling, reason, Gryphon · **What happens:** be, 're, call, remark, lessen · **To what, where:** reason, lessons · **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 (That, Reeling, reason, Gryphon), 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:pg11:10:134
# text = “That’s the reason they’re called lessons,” the Gryphon remarked: “because they lessen from day to day.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	parataxis	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’re	're	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
9	lessons	lesson	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Gryphon	Gryphon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	remarked	remark	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	lessen	lessen	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | That | the reason |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **'re** *in a quote* | past | Reeling | the reason *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **call** *in a quote* | participle | the reason *not said here* | lessons |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **remark** *speech: assert* | past | the Gryphon |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **lessen** *in a quote* | present | Reeling |  |  |  | day |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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:** «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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