---
title: Alice could see this, as she was near enough to look over their slat… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: Alice could see this, as she was near enough to look over their slates; “but it doesn’t matter a bit,” she thought to herself. Who acts: Alice, it. 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 c
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/13/17/)

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter XII. Alice’s Evidence, sentence 17

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Alice could see this, as she was near enough to look over their slates; “but it doesn’t matter a bit,” she thought to herself.

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**Who acts:** Alice, it · **What happens:** see, be, not matter, think · **To what, where:** this, slates, bit, Alice · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Alice, it), 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:pg11:13:17
# text = Alice could see this, as she was near enough to look over their slates; “but it doesn’t matter a bit,” she thought to herself.
1	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
9	near	near	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
13	over	over	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	slates	slate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	matter	matter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
27	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | could | Alice | this |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | Alice |  |  | slates's slates |  | enough, look *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **matter** *in a quote* | present · do-support | it | a bit |  |  |  |  | vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Alice | a bit *not said here* | Alice |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot bit=Theme |

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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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