---
title: This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thou… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. Who acts: question, you, rest. A sentence of «A
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale, sentence 38

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This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence.

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**Who acts:** question, you, rest · **What happens:** not answer, sit, press, see, wait, deal · **To what, where:** Shakespeare, position, silence, thought

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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 (question, you, rest), 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:pg11:4:38
# text = This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Dodo	Dodo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	without	without	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
24	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
25	pressed	press	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	advcl	_	_
26	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	position	position	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	appos	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	36	obl	_	_
34	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
35	usually	usually	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	_
37	Shakespeare	Shakespeare	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	in	in	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	pictures	picture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obl	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
46	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	49	mark	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	nsubj	_	_
49	waited	wait	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
50	in	in	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
51	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **answer** *speech: assert* | could | this question |  |  |  |  | without a great deal of thought | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **sit** | past | question |  |  |  | time | with one finger | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **press** | participle | question *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon question's forehead | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **see** | present | you | Shakespeare |  | the position |  | in the pictures of Shakespeare; usually *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer shakespeare=Stimulus |
| 5 | **wait** | past | the rest |  |  | silence |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in silence=Location |
| 6 | **deal** |  |  | thought |  |  |  |  | nom deal «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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