---
title: “I haven’t opened it yet,” said the White Rabbit, “but it seems to b… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “I haven’t opened it yet,” said the White Rabbit, “but it seems to be a letter, written by the prisoner to—to somebody.” Who acts: White Rabbit, 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 
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter XII. Alice’s Evidence, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I haven’t opened it yet,” said the White Rabbit, “but it seems to be a letter, written by the prisoner to—to somebody.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** White Rabbit, it · **What happens:** not open, say, seem, be, write · **To what, where:** White Rabbit, letter, somebody · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (White Rabbit, it), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg11:13:31
# text = “I haven’t opened it yet,” said the White Rabbit, “but it seems to be a letter, written by the prisoner to—to somebody.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	opened	open	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	ccomp	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	White	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl	_	_
25	by	by	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	prisoner	prisoner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl:agent	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	somebody	somebody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **open** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | the White Rabbit *= rabbit* |  |  | yet |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme it=Destination |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the White Rabbit |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **seem** *in a quote* | present | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | a letter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **write** *in a quote* | participle |  | a letter *not said here* | somebody |  |  |  | vn lecture-37.11-1 «NP V PP.recipient PP.topic»: agent=Agent to somebody=Recipient |

<!-- .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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