---
title: It was all very well to say “Drink me,” but the wise little Alice wa… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: It was all very well to say “Drink me,” but the wise little Alice was not going to do _that_ in a hurry. Who acts: It, wise little Alice. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter I. Down the Rabbit-Hole, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter I. Down the Rabbit-Hole, sentence 55

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It was all very well to say “Drink me,” but the wise little Alice was not going to do \_that\_ in a hurry.

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**Who acts:** It, wise little Alice · **What happens:** be, drink, not go, do · **To what, where:** me, that, hurry · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter I. Down the Rabbit-Hole. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, wise little Alice), 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:pg11:2:55
# text = It was all very well to say “Drink me,” but the wise little Alice was not going to do _that_ in a hurry.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
3	all	all	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	going	go	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
23	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	28	punct	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	hurry	hurry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** *speech: assert* | past | It |  |  |  |  | say, well *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **drink** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | me |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **go** | past · progressive | the wise little Alice | that |  | a hurry |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in hurry=Location |
| 4 | **do** | to-infinitive | the wise little Alice *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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