---
title: Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped herself… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped herself to some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turned to the Dormouse, and repeated her question. Who acts: Alice, bread. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter VII. A Mad Tea-Party, with its dependen
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/8/115/)

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VII. A Mad Tea-Party, sentence 115

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Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped herself to some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turned to the Dormouse, and repeated her question.

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**Who acts:** Alice, bread · **What happens:** not know, say, help, butter, turn, repeat · **To what, where:** this, Alice, question · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter VII. A Mad Tea-Party. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Alice, bread), 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:pg11:8:115
# text = Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped herself to some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turned to the Dormouse, and repeated her question.
1	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	helped	help	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
15	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	14	obj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	det	_	_
18	tea	tea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	butter	butter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
28	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	Dormouse	Dormouse	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	repeated	repeat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
35	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | Alice |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  | this |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=Topic to this=Recipient |
| 3 | **help** | past | Alice | Alice |  |  |  | to some tea and butter | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent herself=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **butter** |  | bread |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **turn** | past | Alice *not said here* |  |  |  | then | to the Dormouse *result* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to dormouse=Result |
| 6 | **repeat** | past | Alice *not said here* | Alice's question |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent question=Eventuality |
| 7 | **question** |  | Alice |  |  |  |  |  | nom question «communication transitive»: poss=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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