---
title: Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-shaped… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-shaped little creature, and held out its arms and legs in all directions, “just like a star-fish,” thought Alice. Who acts: Alice, baby, shaped little creature. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter VI
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-shaped little creature, and held out its arms and legs in all directions, “just like a star-fish,” thought Alice.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Alice, baby, shaped little creature · **What happens:** catch, shape, be, hold out, think · **To what, where:** baby, shaped little creature, arms, directions, Alice

<!-- .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 (Alice, baby, shaped little creature), 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:pg11:7:74
# text = Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-shaped little creature, and held out its arms and legs in all directions, “just like a star-fish,” thought Alice.
1	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	det	_	_
7	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
13	queer	queer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	shaped	shape	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	amod	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl	_	_
21	out	out	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	28	det	_	_
28	directions	direction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
30	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	just	just	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
32	like	like	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
34	star	star	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
39	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
40	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | Alice | the baby |  |  |  | with some difficulty | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent baby=Theme |
| 2 | **shape** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 3 | **is a** | past | baby | a shaped little creature |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **hold out** | participle | a shaped little creature *not said here* | baby's arms and legs |  | all directions and a star fish |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent arm=Theme in direction=Location |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | past | a shaped little creature | Alice |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot alice=Theme |

<!-- .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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