---
title: “It _is_ a long tail, certainly,” said Alice, looking down with wond… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “It _is_ a long tail, certainly,” said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; “but why do you call it sad?” Who acts: tale, long tail, you. 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 pr
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“It \_is\_ a long tail, certainly,” said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; “but why do you call it sad?”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tale, long tail, you · **What happens:** be, say, look down, call · **To what, where:** long tail, tale · **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 (tale, long tail, you), 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:pg11:4:56
# text = “It _is_ a long tail, certainly,” said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; “but why do you call it sad?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
3	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	8	punct	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
17	down	down	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	wonder	wonder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	Mouse	Mouse	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
26	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	31	advmod	_	_
29	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	parataxis	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	31	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | tale | a long tail |  |  |  | certainly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | a long tail |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **look down** | gerund | a long tail *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with wonder; at the Mouse's tail; down *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at tail=Theme |
| 4 | **call** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you | tale |  |  |  | sad *property* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient |

<!-- .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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