---
title: In the very middle of the court was a table, with a large dish of ta… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: In the very middle of the court was a table, with a large dish of tarts upon it: they looked so good, that it made Alice quite hungry to look at them—“I wish they’d get the trial done,” she thought, “and hand round the refreshments!” Who acts: court, King, Alice, trial. A sentence of «Alice's Advent
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter XI. Who Stole the Tarts?, sentence 2

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In the very middle of the court was a table, with a large dish of tarts upon it: they looked so good, that it made Alice quite hungry to look at them—“I wish they’d get the trial done,” she thought, “and hand round the refreshments!”

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**Who acts:** court, King, Alice, trial · **What happens:** be, look, make, wish, have, get · **To what, where:** table, middle, Alice, trial · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter XI. Who Stole the Tarts?. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (court, King, Alice, trial), 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:pg11:12:2
# text = In the very middle of the court was a table, with a large dish of tarts upon it: they looked so good, that it made Alice quite hungry to look at them—“I wish they’d get the trial done,” she thought, “and hand round the refreshments!”
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	dish	dish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	tarts	tart	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
18	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
23	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
29	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
30	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	at	at	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	49	ccomp	_	_
40	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	’d	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	ccomp	_	_
42	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	ccomp	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	trial	trial	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
45	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	42	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	39	punct	_	_
48	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
49	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
51	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	53	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
53	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	ccomp	_	_
54	round	round	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	refreshments	refreshment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	53	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	53	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the court | a table and a large dish of tarts upon dish |  | the middle |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | past | King |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **make** | past | court | Alice |  |  |  | hungry *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material alice=Product |
| 4 | **look** | to-infinitive | Alice *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at King | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at they=Theme |
| 5 | **wish** *in a quote* | present | Alice |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **have** *in a quote* | past | King |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **get** *in a quote* | infinitive | King *not said here* | the trial |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **do** *in a quote* | participle | the trial *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Alice | a table and a large dish of tarts upon dish *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent table=Attribute clause=Theme |

<!-- .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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- ← previous: [sentence 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/12/1/)
- next →: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/12/3/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter XI. Who Stole the Tarts?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/12/)