--- title: But they _have_ their tails in their mouths; and the reason is—” her… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics description: But they _have_ their tails in their mouths; and the reason is—” here the Mock Turtle yawned and shut his eyes.—“Tell her about the reason and all that,” he said to the Gryphon. Who acts: crumbs, reason, Turtle. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter X. The Lobste --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/11/54/) [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 X. The Lobster Quadrille](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/11/) / 54 # Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter X. The Lobster Quadrille, sentence 54 But they \_have\_ their tails in their mouths; and the reason is—” here the Mock Turtle yawned and shut his eyes.—“Tell her about the reason and all that,” he said to the Gryphon. **Who acts:** crumbs, reason, Turtle · **What happens:** have, be, shut, tell, say · **To what, where:** tails, mouths, eyes, lobster, Gryphon · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter X. The Lobster Quadrille. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (crumbs, reason, Turtle), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg11:11:54 # text = But they _have_ their tails in their mouths; and the reason is—” here the Mock Turtle yawned and shut his eyes.—“Tell her about the reason and all that,” he said to the Gryphon. 1 But but CCONJ CC _ 4 cc _ _ 2 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ _ 3 _ _ AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 4 aux _ SpaceAfter=No 4 have have VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 0 root _ SpaceAfter=No 5 _ _ PUNCT NFP _ 7 punct _ _ 6 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 7 nmod:poss _ _ 7 tails tail NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 obj _ _ 8 in in ADP IN _ 10 case _ _ 9 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 10 nmod:poss _ _ 10 mouths mouth NOUN NNS Number=Plur 7 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 11 ; ; PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 12 and and CCONJ CC _ 22 cc _ _ 13 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 14 det _ _ 14 reason reason NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 nsubj:outer _ _ 15 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 22 cop _ SpaceAfter=No 16 — - PUNCT : _ 15 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 17 ” " PUNCT '' _ 15 punct _ _ 18 here here ADV RB PronType=Dem 22 advmod _ _ 19 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 21 det _ _ 20 Mock Mock PROPN NNP Number=Sing 21 compound _ _ 21 Turtle Turtle PROPN NNP Number=Sing 22 nsubj _ _ 22 yawned yawn VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 parataxis _ _ 23 and and CCONJ CC _ 24 cc _ _ 24 shut shut VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 22 conj _ _ 25 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 26 nmod:poss _ _ 26 eyes eye NOUN NNS Number=Plur 24 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 27 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 28 — - PUNCT : _ 30 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 29 “ " PUNCT `` _ 30 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 30 Tell tell VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 4 parataxis _ _ 31 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 30 iobj _ _ 32 about about ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 33 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 34 reason reason NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 obl _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 36 cc _ _ 36 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 34 nmod _ _ 37 that that PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 36 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 38 , , PUNCT , _ 36 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 39 ” " PUNCT '' _ 36 punct _ _ 40 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 41 nsubj _ _ 41 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 36 acl:relcl _ _ 42 to to ADP IN _ 44 case _ _ 43 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 44 det _ _ 44 Gryphon Gryphon PROPN NNP Number=Sing 41 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 45 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **have** | | crumbs *= crumb* | crumbs's tails | | crumbs's mouths | | | tree rules | | 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the reason | | | here | | yawn *property* | tree rules | | 3 | **shut** *in a quote* | past | the reason *not said here* | Turtle's eyes | | | | | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent eye=Patient | | 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | | | lobster | | | about the reason all | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent she=Recipient about reason=Topic | | 5 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | Turtle | | the Gryphon | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to gryphon=Recipient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/11/53/) - next →: [sentence 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/11/55/) - ↑ back to [Chapter X. The Lobster Quadrille](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/11/)