---
title: “Please would you tell me,” said Alice, a little timidly, for she wa… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “Please would you tell me,” said Alice, a little timidly, for she was not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, “why your cat grins like that?” Who acts: you, Alice, cat. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, with its 
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Please would you tell me,” said Alice, a little timidly, for she was not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, “why your cat grins like that?”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, Alice, cat · **What happens:** tell, say, not be, be, speak, grin · **To what, where:** Alice, good manners · **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 (you, Alice, cat), 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:pg11:7:41
# text = “Please would you tell me,” said Alice, a little timidly, for she was not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, “why your cat grins like that?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Please	please	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
6	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	obl:unmarked	_	_
14	timidly	timidly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
20	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	parataxis	_	_
22	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	manners	manners	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	21	ccomp	_	_
27	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
31	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
33	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	37	advmod	_	_
35	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
37	grins	grin	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	advcl	_	_
38	like	like	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | would | you |  | Alice |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Alice |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **is** | past | Alice |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | past | cat | good manners |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | Alice |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **grin** *in a quote* | present | your cat |  |  |  |  | like that | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «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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