---
title: “But perhaps he can’t help it,” she said to herself; “his eyes are s… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “But perhaps he can’t help it,” she said to herself; “his eyes are so _very_ nearly at the top of his head. Who acts: other, Alice, eyes. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/7/18/)

<!-- 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 VI. Pig and Pepper](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/7/) / 18

# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“But perhaps he can’t help it,” she said to herself; “his eyes are so \_very\_ nearly at the top of his head.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** other, Alice, eyes · **What happens:** not help, say, be · **To what, where:** sky, Alice, top · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (other, Alice, eyes), 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:pg11:7:18
# text = “But perhaps he can’t help it,” she said to herself; “his eyes are so _very_ nearly at the top of his head.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
3	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
19	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	parataxis	_	_
21	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	very	very	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	22	punct	_	_
24	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **help** *in a quote* | can | other | sky |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Alice |  | Alice |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to herself=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | other's eyes |  |  | the top of other's head |  | so *property* | 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.

<!-- 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 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/7/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/7/19/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/7/)