---
title: “important—unimportant—unimportant—important—” as if he were trying… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “important—unimportant—unimportant—important—” as if he were trying which word sounded best. Who acts: King, word. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter XII. Alice’s Evidence, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter XII. Alice’s Evidence, sentence 15

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“important—unimportant—unimportant—important—” as if he were trying which word sounded best.

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**Who acts:** King, word · **What happens:** try, sound

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This is a sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter XII. Alice’s Evidence. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, word), 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:pg11:13:15
# text = “important—unimportant—unimportant—important—” as if he were trying which word sounded best.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	important	important	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	—	-	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	unimportant	unimportant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	—	-	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	unimportant	unimportant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	important	important	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
16	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	17	det	_	_
17	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	sounded	sound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
19	best	well	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past · progressive | King |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **sound** | past | which word |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

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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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