--- title: “I can’t help it,” said Alice very meekly: “I’m growing.” — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics description: “I can’t help it,” said Alice very meekly: “I’m growing.” Who acts: Alice. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter XI. Who Stole the Tarts?, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/12/51/) [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 XI. Who Stole the Tarts?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/12/) / 51 # Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter XI. Who Stole the Tarts?, sentence 51 “I can’t help it,” said Alice very meekly: “I’m growing.” **Who acts:** Alice · **What happens:** not help, say, be, grow · **To what, where:** sensation · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (Alice), 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:pg11:12:51 # text = “I can’t help it,” said Alice very meekly: “I’m growing.” 1 “ " PUNCT `` _ 5 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _ 3 ca can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 5 aux _ SpaceAfter=No 4 n’t not PART RB Polarity=Neg 5 advmod _ _ 5 help help VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 9 ccomp _ _ 6 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 5 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 8 ” " PUNCT '' _ 5 punct _ _ 9 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 10 Alice Alice PROPN NNP Number=Sing 9 nsubj _ _ 11 very very ADV RB _ 12 advmod _ _ 12 meekly meekly ADV RB _ 9 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 13 : : PUNCT : _ 16 punct _ _ 14 “ " PUNCT `` _ 16 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 15 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 16 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 16 ’m be VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 9 conj _ _ 17 growing grow VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 16 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 18 . . PUNCT . _ 9 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 19 ” " PUNCT '' _ 9 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **not** **help** *in a quote* | can | Alice | sensation | | | | | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary | | 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Alice | | | | | meekly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 3 | **be** *in a quote* | present | Alice | | | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **grow** *in a quote* | gerund | Alice *not said here* | | | | | | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | 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 50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/12/50/) - next →: [sentence 52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/12/52/) - ↑ back to [Chapter XI. Who Stole the Tarts?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/12/)