---
title: It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and looking anx… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something; and she heard it muttering to itself “The Duchess! Who acts: It, White Rabbit, Rabbit, she. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter IV. The Rab
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something; and she heard it muttering to itself “The Duchess!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, White Rabbit, Rabbit, she · **What happens:** be, trot, look, go, lose, hear · **To what, where:** White Rabbit, Rabbit, Duchess

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, White Rabbit, Rabbit, she), 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:pg11:5:1
# text = It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something; and she heard it muttering to itself “The Duchess!
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	White	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	trotting	trot	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
8	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	back	back	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
10	again	again	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	conj	_	_
14	anxiously	anxiously	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	about	about	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	parataxis	_	_
25	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	muttering	mutter	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	xcomp	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	31	obl	_	_
34	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	Duchess	Duchess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | It | the White Rabbit |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **trot** | gerund | the White Rabbit *not said here* |  |  |  | again |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **look** | gerund | the White Rabbit *not said here* |  |  |  |  | anxiously *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **go** | past | Rabbit |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **lose** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect · passive |  | Rabbit |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **hear** | past | she | Rabbit |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **mutter** *speech: assert* | gerund | Rabbit *not said here* | the Duchess | Rabbit |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to itself=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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