---
title: When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that kind of thing never… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! Who acts: I, kind. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, kind · **What happens:** use, read, fancy, not happen, be · **To what, where:** fairy tales, middle

<!-- .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, kind), 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:pg11:5:38
# text = When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
6	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	fancied	fancy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	det	_	_
13	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
16	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	_
21	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	conj	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
23	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	parataxis	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **use** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **read** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | fairy tales |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tale=Topic |
| 3 | **fancy** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **not** **happen** | past | that kind of thing |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | present | I |  |  | the middle |  | of one | tree rules |

<!-- .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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