---
title: “It must have been that,” said the King, “unless it was written to n… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “It must have been that,” said the King, “unless it was written to nobody, which isn’t usual, you know.” Who acts: paper, that, you. 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 32

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“It must have been that,” said the King, “unless it was written to nobody, which isn’t usual, you know.”

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**Who acts:** paper, that, you · **What happens:** be, say, write, not be, know · **To what, where:** that, paper, nobody · **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 (paper, that, you), 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:pg11:13:32
# text = “It must have been that,” said the King, “unless it was written to nobody, which isn’t usual, you know.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	cop	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	advcl	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	usual	usual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | must · perfect | paper | that |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | that |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **write** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past · passive |  | paper | nobody |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Topic to nobody=Recipient |
| 4 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  | usual *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **know** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: 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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