---
title: “I know what ‘it’ means well enough, when _I_ find a thing,” said th… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “I know what ‘it’ means well enough, when _I_ find a thing,” said the Duck: “it’s generally a frog or a worm. Who acts: Duck, archbishop. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I know what ‘it’ means well enough, when \_I\_ find a thing,” said the Duck: “it’s generally a frog or a worm.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Duck, archbishop · **What happens:** know, mean, find, say, be · **To what, where:** thing, frog · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Duck, archbishop), 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:pg11:4:21
# text = “I know what ‘it’ means well enough, when _I_ find a thing,” said the Duck: “it’s generally a frog or a worm.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	ccomp	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
5	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
8	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
9	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
10	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
12	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	16	mark	_	_
13	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	_	_	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
25	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
28	generally	generally	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	frog	frog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
31	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	worm	worm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** *in a quote* | present | the Duck and a frog or a worm *= duck* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **mean** *in a quote* | present | archbishop |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 3 | **find** *in a quote* | infinitive | the Duck and a frog or a worm *= duck* | a thing |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Topic |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Duck and a frog or a worm |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | archbishop | a frog or a worm |  |  |  | generally *property* | 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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