---
title: “Poor little thing!” said Alice, in a coaxing tone, and she tried ha… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “Poor little thing!” said Alice, in a coaxing tone, and she tried hard to whistle to it; but she was terribly frightened all the time at the thought that it might be hungry, in which case it would be very likely to eat her up in spite of all her coaxing. Who acts: Alice, thing, puppy, it. A sentence
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill, sentence 113

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“Poor little thing!” said Alice, in a coaxing tone, and she tried hard to whistle to it; but she was terribly frightened all the time at the thought that it might be hungry, in which case it would be very likely to eat her up in spite of all her coaxing.

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**Who acts:** Alice, thing, puppy, it · **What happens:** say, coax, try, whistle, frighten, be · **To what, where:** tone, thing, thought, case, spite, coaxing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Alice, thing, puppy, it), 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:pg11:5:113
# text = “Poor little thing!” said Alice, in a coaxing tone, and she tried hard to whistle to it; but she was terribly frightened all the time at the thought that it might be hungry, in which case it would be very likely to eat her up in spite of all her coaxing.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	coaxing	coax	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	amod	_	_
13	tone	tone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
18	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	whistle	whistle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
27	terribly	terribly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	parataxis	_	_
29	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	31	det:predet	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl:unmarked	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
35	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
37	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
38	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	cop	_	_
39	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
41	in	in	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	43	det	_	_
43	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	_
44	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
45	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	48	aux	_	_
46	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	48	cop	_	_
47	very	very	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
48	likely	likely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	conj	_	_
49	to	to	PART	TO	_	50	mark	_	_
50	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	48	xcomp	_	_
51	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	obj	_	_
52	up	up	ADP	RP	_	50	compound:prt	_	_
53	in	in	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
54	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obl	_	_
55	of	of	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
56	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	58	det:predet	_	_
57	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	58	nmod:poss	_	_
58	coaxing	coaxing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Alice |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **coax** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **try** | past | thing |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **whistle** | to-infinitive | thing *not said here* |  | tone |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to it=Recipient |
| 5 | **frighten** | past · passive |  | thing |  | the thought | time | terribly *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 6 | **is** | might | puppy |  |  |  |  | hungry *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **is** | would | it |  |  | which case |  | likely *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **eat up** | to-infinitive |  | thing |  | spite of thing's coaxing |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient |
| 9 | **spite** |  |  | thing's coaxing |  |  |  |  | nom spite «feeling transitive»: of=patient |
| 10 | **coax** |  | thing |  |  |  |  |  | nom coaxing «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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