---
title: The poor little thing was snorting like a steam-engine when she caug… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor little thing was snorting like a steam-engine when she caught it, and kept doubling itself up and straightening itself out again, so that altogether, for the first minute or two, it was as much as she could do to hold it. Who acts: poor little thing, Alice, engine. A sentence of «Alice's Ad
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/7/75/)

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, sentence 75

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The poor little thing was snorting like a steam-engine when she caught it, and kept doubling itself up and straightening itself out again, so that altogether, for the first minute or two, it was as much as she could do to hold it.

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**Who acts:** poor little thing, Alice, engine · **What happens:** snort, catch, keep, double up, straighten out, be · **To what, where:** engine

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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 (poor little thing, Alice, engine), 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:pg11:7:75
# text = The poor little thing was snorting like a steam-engine when she caught it, and kept doubling itself up and straightening itself out again, so that altogether, for the first minute or two, it was as much as she could do to hold it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	snorting	snort	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	like	like	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	steam	steam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	engine	engine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
12	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	14	mark	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
19	doubling	double	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	xcomp	_	_
20	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	19	obj	_	_
21	up	up	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	straightening	straighten	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	conj	_	_
24	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	23	obj	_	_
25	out	out	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
26	again	again	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	fixed	_	_
30	altogether	altogether	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
32	for	for	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	35	amod	_	_
35	minute	minute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
36	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
39	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
40	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	cop	_	_
41	as	as	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
42	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	_
43	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
44	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
45	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
46	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	acl	_	_
47	to	to	PART	TO	_	48	mark	_	_
48	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	advcl	_	_
49	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **snort** | past · progressive | the poor little thing |  |  |  |  | like a steam engine | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **catch** | past | Alice | engine |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **keep** | past |  |  |  |  | minute | altogether *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **double up** | gerund |  | engine |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent itself=Patient |
| 5 | **straighten out** | gerund |  | engine |  |  | again |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent itself=Patient |
| 6 | **is** | past | engine |  |  |  |  | much *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **do** | could | Alice |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **hold** | to-infinitive | Alice *not said here* | engine |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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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