---
title: That’ll be a comfort, one way—never to be an old woman—but then—alwa… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: That’ll be a comfort, one way—never to be an old woman—but then—always to have lessons to learn! Who acts: That. 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 every clause.
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
That’ll be a comfort, one way—never to be an old woman—but then—always to have lessons to learn!

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**Who acts:** That · **What happens:** be, not be, have, learn · **To what, where:** comfort, old woman, lessons

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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 (That), 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:pg11:5:42
# text = That’ll be a comfort, one way—never to be an old woman—but then—always to have lessons to learn!
1	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	’ll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	comfort	comfort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
13	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	22	advmod	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
23	lessons	lesson	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | future | That | a comfort and one way and a old woman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | to-infinitive | That *not said here* | a old woman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | to-infinitive |  | lessons |  |  | then | always *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lesson=Patient |
| 4 | **learn** | to-infinitive |  | lessons *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=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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