---
title: “If everybody minded their own business,” the Duchess said in a hoar… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “If everybody minded their own business,” the Duchess said in a hoarse growl, “the world would go round a deal faster than it does.” Who acts: everybody, Duchess, world. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, sentence 54

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“If everybody minded their own business,” the Duchess said in a hoarse growl, “the world would go round a deal faster than it does.”

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**Who acts:** everybody, Duchess, world · **What happens:** mind, say, go, do · **To what, where:** own business, hoarse growl, deal · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (everybody, Duchess, world), 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:pg11:7:54
# text = “If everybody minded their own business,” the Duchess said in a hoarse growl, “the world would go round a deal faster than it does.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	everybody	everybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	4	nsubj	_	_
4	minded	mind	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Duchess	Duchess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	hoarse	hoarse	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	growl	growl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
23	round	round	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	22	advmod	_	_
27	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	does	do	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mind** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | everybody | saucepans's own business |  |  |  |  | vn caring-75.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent business=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Duchess |  |  | a hoarse growl |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go** *in a quote* | would | the world |  |  | a deal |  | fast *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme round deal=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | present | world |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «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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