---
title: “And so these three little sisters—they were learning to draw, you k… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “And so these three little sisters—they were learning to draw, you know—” Who acts: these, sisters, three little sisters. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter VII. A Mad Tea-Party, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VII. A Mad Tea-Party, sentence 125

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“And so these three little sisters—they were learning to draw, you know—”

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**Who acts:** these, sisters, three little sisters · **What happens:** sister, learn, draw, know

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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 (these, sisters, three little sisters), 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:pg11:8:125
# text = “And so these three little sisters—they were learning to draw, you know—”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
4	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	7	nsubj	_	_
5	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	learning	learn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	draw	draw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sister** *in a quote* |  | these |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **learn** *in a quote* | past · progressive | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **draw** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | sisters *= sister* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **know** *in a quote* | present | three little sisters |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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