---
title: “And yet what a dear little puppy it was!” said Alice, as she leant… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “And yet what a dear little puppy it was!” said Alice, as she leant against a buttercup to rest herself, and fanned herself with one of the leaves: “I should have liked teaching it tricks very much, if—if I’d only been the right size to do it! Who acts: I. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonder
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/5/116/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Alice's Adventures in Wonderland](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/) / [Chapter IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Litt…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/5/) / 116

# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill, sentence 116

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“And yet what a dear little puppy it was!” said Alice, as she leant against a buttercup to rest herself, and fanned herself with one of the leaves: “I should have liked teaching it tricks very much, if—if I’d only been the right size to do it!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, say, rest, fan, like, teach · **To what, where:** dear little puppy, Alice, puppy, right size · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (I), 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:pg11:5:116
# text = “And yet what a dear little puppy it was!” said Alice, as she leant against a buttercup to rest herself, and fanned herself with one of the leaves: “I should have liked teaching it tricks very much, if—if I’d only been the right size to do it!
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
3	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	nsubj:outer	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	puppy	puppy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	compound	_	_
18	leant	leant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	appos	_	_
19	against	against	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	buttercup	buttercup	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	rest	rest	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
24	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	fanned	fan	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
28	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	27	obj	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	39	punct	_	_
35	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
37	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
38	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	aux	_	_
39	liked	like	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	42	csubj:pass	_	_
40	teaching	teach	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	39	xcomp	_	_
41	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	obj	_	_
42	tricks	trick	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
43	very	very	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
44	much	much	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
46	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	55	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	55	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	55	mark	_	_
49	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	55	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	’d	'd	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	55	cop	_	_
51	only	only	ADV	RB	_	55	advmod	_	_
52	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	55	cop	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
54	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	amod	_	_
55	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	parataxis	_	_
56	to	to	PART	TO	_	57	mark	_	_
57	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	55	acl	_	_
58	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	57	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | past |  | a dear little puppy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **rest** | to-infinitive |  | Alice |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location herself=Theme |
| 4 | **fan** | past |  | Alice |  |  |  | with one of the leaves | tree rules |
| 5 | **like** *in a quote* | should · perfect | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **teach** *speech: other* *not said to happen, in a quote* | gerund | I *not said here* |  | puppy |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient |
| 7 | **trick** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | I | the right size |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | puppy |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/5/115/)
- next →: [sentence 117](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/5/117/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/5/)