---
title: “I’m a poor man, your Majesty,” the Hatter began, in a trembling voi… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “I’m a poor man, your Majesty,” the Hatter began, in a trembling voice, “—and I hadn’t begun my tea—not above a week or so—and what with the bread-and-butter getting so thin—and the twinkling of the tea—” Who acts: Dormouse, Hatter, butter. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis C
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter XI. Who Stole the Tarts?, sentence 58

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“I’m a poor man, your Majesty,” the Hatter began, in a trembling voice, “—and I hadn’t begun my tea—not above a week or so—and what with the bread-and-butter getting so thin—and the twinkling of the tea—”

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**Who acts:** Dormouse, Hatter, butter · **What happens:** be, begin, not begin, get · **To what, where:** poor man, trembling voice, tea · **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 (Dormouse, Hatter, butter), 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:pg11:12:58
# text = “I’m a poor man, your Majesty,” the Hatter began, in a trembling voice, “—and I hadn’t begun my tea—not above a week or so—and what with the bread-and-butter getting so thin—and the twinkling of the tea—”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’m	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	Majesty	majesty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Hatter	Hatter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	trembling	trembling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
21	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	begun	begin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	parataxis	_	_
28	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	tea	tea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
32	above	above	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	week	week	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl:unmarked	_	_
35	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	so	so	ADV	RB	_	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	parataxis	_	_
40	with	with	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
42	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	46	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	44	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	butter	butter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	_
47	getting	get	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	46	acl	_	_
48	so	so	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
49	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	53	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
52	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	twinkling	twinkling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	appos	_	_
54	of	of	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	tea	tea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	53	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	39	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** *in a quote* | present | Dormouse | a poor man |  |  |  |  | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot man=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the Hatter |  |  | a trembling voice |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **not** **begin** *in a quote* | past · perfect | Dormouse | my tea |  |  | week |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tea=Eventuality |
| 4 | **get** *in a quote* | gerund | the butter *not said here* |  |  |  |  | thin *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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