---
title: While the Duchess sang the second verse of the song, she kept tossin… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: While the Duchess sang the second verse of the song, she kept tossing the baby violently up and down, and the poor little thing howled so, that Alice could hardly hear the words:— Who acts: Duchess, Alice. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper,
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, sentence 67

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While the Duchess sang the second verse of the song, she kept tossing the baby violently up and down, and the poor little thing howled so, that Alice could hardly hear the words:—

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Duchess, Alice · **What happens:** sing, keep, toss, howl, hear, verse · **To what, where:** second verse, baby, poor little thing, words, song

<!-- .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, Alice), 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:pg11:7:67
# text = While the Duchess sang the second verse of the song, she kept tossing the baby violently up and down, and the poor little thing howled so, that Alice could hardly hear the words:—
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Duchess	Duchess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	7	amod	_	_
7	verse	verse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	tossing	toss	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	xcomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	violently	violently	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	up	up	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	down	down	ADV	RB	_	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	howled	howl	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
31	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
32	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | the Duchess | the second verse of the song |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location verse=Theme |
| 2 | **keep** | past | Duchess |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **toss** | gerund | Duchess *not said here* | the baby |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent baby=Patient |
| 4 | **howl** | participle · passive |  | the poor little thing |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V NP.theme»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **hear** | could | Alice | the words |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus |
| 6 | **verse** |  |  | the song |  |  |  |  | nom verse «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.

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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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