---
title: “We called him Tortoise because he taught us,” said the Mock Turtle… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “We called him Tortoise because he taught us,” said the Mock Turtle angrily: “really you are very dull!” Who acts: We, Hjckrrh, Mock Turtle, you. 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 eve
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story, sentence 92

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“We called him Tortoise because he taught us,” said the Mock Turtle angrily: “really you are very dull!”

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**Who acts:** We, Hjckrrh, Mock Turtle, you · **What happens:** call, teach, say, be · **To what, where:** Hjckrrh, us · **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 (We, Hjckrrh, Mock Turtle, you), 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:pg11:10:92
# text = “We called him Tortoise because he taught us,” said the Mock Turtle angrily: “really you are very dull!”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	Tortoise	Tortoise	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	xcomp	_	_
6	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	taught	teach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
9	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	Mock	Mock	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	Turtle	Turtle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
16	angrily	angrily	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	really	really	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	very	very	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	dull	dull	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** *in a quote* | past | We |  | Hjckrrh |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **teach** *speech: other* *in a quote* | past | Hjckrrh |  | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent we=Recipient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the Mock Turtle |  |  |  |  | angrily *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | dull *property* | tree rules |

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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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