---
title: At this moment the door of the house opened, and a large plate came… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: At this moment the door of the house opened, and a large plate came skimming out, straight at the Footman’s head: it just grazed his nose, and broke to pieces against one of the trees behind him. Who acts: door, large plate, plate. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, C
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, sentence 21

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At this moment the door of the house opened, and a large plate came skimming out, straight at the Footman’s head: it just grazed his nose, and broke to pieces against one of the trees behind him.

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**Who acts:** door, large plate, plate · **What happens:** open, come, skim out, graze, break · **To what, where:** head, nose

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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 (door, large plate, plate), 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:pg11:7:21
# text = At this moment the door of the house opened, and a large plate came skimming out, straight at the Footman’s head: it just grazed his nose, and broke to pieces against one of the trees behind him.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	plate	plate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	skimming	skim	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	xcomp	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	Footman	Footman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	just	just	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	grazed	graze	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	_
36	against	against	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	obl	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nmod	_	_
41	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | the door of the house |  |  |  | moment |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past | a large plate |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **skim out** | gerund | a large plate *not said here* |  |  | the Footman's head |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **graze** | past | plate | other's nose |  |  |  |  | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nose=Experiencer |
| 5 | **break** | past | the door of the house *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to pieces; against one of the trees behind other | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against one=Location |

<!-- .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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