---
title: “What I was going to say,” said the Dodo in an offended tone, “was,… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “What I was going to say,” said the Dodo in an offended tone, “was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.” Who acts: Dodo, best thing. 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 p
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“What I was going to say,” said the Dodo in an offended tone, “was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Dodo, best thing · **What happens:** go, say, be, get · **To what, where:** best thing, us, Caucus race · **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 (Dodo, best thing), 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:pg11:4:31
# text = “What I was going to say,” said the Dodo in an offended tone, “was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	ccomp	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Dodo	Dodo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	offended	offended	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	tone	tone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	24	amod	_	_
24	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl	_	_
27	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	iobj	_	_
28	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	xcomp	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	cop	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
32	Caucus	Caucus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	race	race	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	34	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** *in a quote* | past · progressive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Dodo in a offended tone |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | past |  | the best thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **get** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the best thing *not said here* |  | us |  |  | dry *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer we=Stimulus |
| 6 | **is a** *in a quote* | would | the best thing | a Caucus race |  |  |  |  | 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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