---
title: “Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” Who acts: you, King. 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 51

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“Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

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**Who acts:** you, King · **What happens:** begin, say, go on, come, stop · **To what, where:** beginning, end · **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 (you, King), 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:pg11:13:51
# text = “Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Begin	begin	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
11	gravely	gravely	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
16	on	on	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
24	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	_
25	stop	stop	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** *in a quote* | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  | at the beginning |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the King |  |  |  |  | gravely *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go on** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **come** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  | to the end |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to end=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **stop** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  | then |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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