---
title: “Well, I’ve tried to say “How doth the little busy bee,” but it all… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “Well, I’ve tried to say “How doth the little busy bee,” but it all came different!” Who acts: bee. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter V. Advice from a Caterpillar, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter V. Advice from a Caterpillar, sentence 32

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“Well, I’ve tried to say “How doth the little busy bee,” but it all came different!”

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**Who acts:** bee · **What happens:** try, say, do, come · **To what, where:** Caterpillar, little busy bee · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter V. Advice from a Caterpillar. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bee), 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:pg11:6:32
# text = “Well, I’ve tried to say “How doth the little busy bee,” but it all came different!”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’ve	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
11	doth	do	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	bee	bee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	advmod	_	_
21	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
22	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | the Caterpillar *= caterpillar* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | present |  | the little busy bee |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bee=Eventuality |
| 4 | **come** *in a quote* | past | bee |  |  |  |  | different *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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