---
title: Presently the Rabbit came up to the door, and tried to open it; but,… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: Presently the Rabbit came up to the door, and tried to open it; but, as the door opened inwards, and Alice’s elbow was pressed hard against it, that attempt proved a failure. Who acts: Rabbit, door, attempt. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter IV. The Rabbit Se
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Presently the Rabbit came up to the door, and tried to open it; but, as the door opened inwards, and Alice’s elbow was pressed hard against it, that attempt proved a failure.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Rabbit, door, attempt · **What happens:** come up, try, open, press, prove · **To what, where:** door, Rabbit, elbow, failure

<!-- .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 (Rabbit, door, attempt), 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:pg11:5:54
# text = Presently the Rabbit came up to the door, and tried to open it; but, as the door opened inwards, and Alice’s elbow was pressed hard against it, that attempt proved a failure.
1	Presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	up	up	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
22	inwards	inwards	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’s	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	elbow	elbow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	pressed	press	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
30	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	29	advmod	_	_
31	against	against	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	35	det	_	_
35	attempt	attempt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
36	proved	prove	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	failure	failure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come up** | past | the Rabbit |  |  | the door |  | presently *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to door=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **try** | past | the Rabbit *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **open** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the Rabbit *not said here* | Rabbit |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme |
| 4 | **open** | past | the door |  |  |  |  | inwards *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **press** | past · passive |  | Alice's elbow |  |  |  | against Rabbit; hard *property* | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 6 | **prove** | past | that attempt | a failure |  |  |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent failure=Theme |

<!-- .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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