---
title: The Duchess took no notice of them even when they hit her; and the b… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: The Duchess took no notice of them even when they hit her; and the baby was howling so much already, that it was quite impossible to say whether the blows hurt it or not. Who acts: Duchess, irons, baby, blows. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter VI. Pig and Pep
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/7/51/)

<!-- 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/) / 51

# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Duchess took no notice of them even when they hit her; and the baby was howling so much already, that it was quite impossible to say whether the blows hurt it or not.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Duchess, irons, baby, blows · **What happens:** take, hit, howl, be, say, hurt · **To what, where:** notice, Duchess, baby, irons · **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 (Duchess, irons, baby, blows), 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:pg11:7:51
# text = The Duchess took no notice of them even when they hit her; and the baby was howling so much already, that it was quite impossible to say whether the blows hurt it or not.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Duchess	Duchess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	notice	notice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	_
8	even	even	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	hit	hit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
12	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	howling	howl	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	much	much	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	already	already	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	expl	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	csubj	_	_
30	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	blows	blow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
33	hurt	hurt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	ccomp	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the Duchess | no notice of irons |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent notice=Theme |
| 2 | **hit** | past | irons *= iron* | Duchess |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme she=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **howl** | past · progressive | the baby |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | the baby *not said here* |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **hurt** | past | the blows | baby |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Patient |
| 7 | **notice** |  |  | irons *= iron* |  |  |  |  | nom notice «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/7/50/)
- next →: [sentence 52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/7/52/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/7/)