---
title: Alice was very nearly getting up and saying, “Thank you, sir, for yo… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: Alice was very nearly getting up and saying, “Thank you, sir, for your interesting story,” but she could not help thinking there _must_ be more to come, so she sat still and said nothing. Who acts: Alice. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story, sentence 87

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Alice was very nearly getting up and saying, “Thank you, sir, for your interesting story,” but she could not help thinking there \_must\_ be more to come, so she sat still and said nothing.

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**Who acts:** Alice · **What happens:** get up, say, thank, not help, think, be · **To what, where:** interesting story, you, nothing · **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 (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:pg11:10:87
# text = Alice was very nearly getting up and saying, “Thank you, sir, for your interesting story,” but she could not help thinking there _must_ be more to come, so she sat still and said nothing.
1	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	up	up	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	Thank	thank	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	interesting	interesting	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
27	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	xcomp	_	_
28	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	_
29	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	33	punct	_	_
32	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	cop	_	_
33	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	obj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
37	so	so	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
38	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
40	still	still	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	conj	_	_
43	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get up** | past · progressive | Alice | your interesting story |  |  |  | nearly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | Alice *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **thank** *speech: thank* *in a quote* | present |  |  | you |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **help** | could | Alice |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | gerund | Alice *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | more *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **come** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **sit** | past | Alice |  |  |  | still |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Alice *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent nothing=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.

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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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