---
title: He unfolded the paper as he spoke, and added “It isn’t a letter, aft… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: He unfolded the paper as he spoke, and added “It isn’t a letter, after all: it’s a set of verses.” Who acts: Rabbit, paper. 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 35

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He unfolded the paper as he spoke, and added “It isn’t a letter, after all: it’s a set of verses.”

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**Who acts:** Rabbit, paper · **What happens:** unfold, speak, add, not be · **To what, where:** paper, letter · **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 (Rabbit, paper), 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:pg11:13:35
# text = He unfolded the paper as he spoke, and added “It isn’t a letter, after all: it’s a set of verses.”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	unfolded	unfold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	added	add	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	after	after	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	set	set	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	verses	verse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **unfold** | past | Rabbit | the paper |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | Rabbit |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **add** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **is a** *in a quote* | present | paper | a letter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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- ↑ back to [Chapter XII. Alice’s Evidence](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/13/)