---
title: “—_said I could not swim_—” you can’t swim, can you?” he added, turn… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “—_said I could not swim_—” you can’t swim, can you?” he added, turning to the Knave. Who acts: I, 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 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“—\_said I could not swim\_—” you can’t swim, can you?” he added, turning to the Knave.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, you, King · **What happens:** say, not swim, add, turn · **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 (I, you, King), 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:pg11:13:65
# text = “—_said I could not swim_—” you can’t swim, can you?” he added, turning to the Knave.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	added	add	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	Knave	Knave	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **swim** *in a quote* | could | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **swim** | can | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **add** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | King |  |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **turn** *in a quote* | gerund | King *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the Knave *result* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to knave=Result |

<!-- .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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