---
title: The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he _sa… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he _said_ was, “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?” Who acts: Hatter. 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 16

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The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he \_said\_ was, “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”

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**Who acts:** Hatter · **What happens:** open, hear, say, be · **To what, where:** eyes, this, raven · **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 (Hatter), 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:pg11:8:16
# text = The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he _said_ was, “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Hatter	Hatter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	wide	wide	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
8	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
10	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	ccomp	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	24	punct	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	raven	raven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	ccomp	_	_
25	like	like	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	desk	desk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | the Hatter | Hatter's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location eye=Theme |
| 2 | **hear** | gerund | the Hatter *not said here* | this |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Hatter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | past |  | a raven |  |  |  | like a writing desk | tree rules |

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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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