---
title: “I think I should understand that better,” Alice said very politely,… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “I think I should understand that better,” Alice said very politely, “if I had it written down: but I can’t quite follow it as you say it.” Who acts: I, Alice, you. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story, with its dependency tree and th
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/10/35/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Alice's Adventures in Wonderland](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/) / [Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/10/) / 35

# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I think I should understand that better,” Alice said very politely, “if I had it written down: but I can’t quite follow it as you say it.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, Alice, you · **What happens:** think, understand, say, write down, not follow · **To what, where:** moral · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (I, Alice, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg11:10:35
# text = “I think I should understand that better,” Alice said very politely, “if I had it written down: but I can’t quite follow it as you say it.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	that	that	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
11	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
13	very	very	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	politely	politely	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	ccomp	_	_
22	down	down	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
26	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
28	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	follow	follow	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
32	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **understand** *in a quote* | should | I |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Alice |  |  |  |  | politely *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **write down** *in a quote* | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **follow** *in a quote* | can | Alice | moral |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | you | moral |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/10/34/)
- next →: [sentence 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/10/36/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/10/)