---
title: “The reason is,” said the Gryphon, “that they _would_ go with the lo… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “The reason is,” said the Gryphon, “that they _would_ go with the lobsters to the dance. Who acts: reason. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter X. The Lobster Quadrille, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter X. The Lobster Quadrille, sentence 55

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“The reason is,” said the Gryphon, “that they \_would\_ go with the lobsters to the dance.

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**Who acts:** reason · **What happens:** be, say, go · **To what, where:** reason, dance · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (reason), 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:pg11:11:55
# text = “The reason is,” said the Gryphon, “that they _would_ go with the lobsters to the dance.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Gryphon	Gryphon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	15	punct	_	_
17	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	lobsters	lobster	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the reason |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the reason |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go** *in a quote* | would |  |  |  | the dance |  | with the lobsters | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to dance=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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- ↑ back to [Chapter X. The Lobster Quadrille](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/11/)