---
title: The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dip… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, “It was the _best_ butter, you know.” Who acts: March Hare, Hatter, you. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Won
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/8/35/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Alice's Adventures in Wonderland](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/) / [Chapter VII. A Mad Tea-Party](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/8/) / 35

# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VII. A Mad Tea-Party, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, “It was the \_best\_ butter, you know.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** March Hare, Hatter, you · **What happens:** take, look, dip, think, say, be · **To what, where:** watch, butter, cup · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (March Hare, Hatter, you), 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:pg11:8:35
# text = The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, “It was the _best_ butter, you know.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	March	March	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	Hare	Hare	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	watch	watch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	_
11	gloomily	gloomily	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
13	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	dipped	dip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	cup	cup	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	tea	tea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	_
27	again	again	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	32	obl	_	_
35	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	34	amod	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	acl	_	_
38	than	than	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
40	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	41	amod	_	_
41	remark	remark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
43	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	48	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	expl	_	_
45	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	cop	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	48	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	41	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	50	punct	_	_
50	butter	butter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
52	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
53	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	32	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the March Hare | the watch |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent watch=Theme |
| 2 | **look** | past | the March Hare *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at butter; gloomily *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at it=Theme |
| 3 | **dip** | past | Hatter | butter |  | Hatter's cup of tea | then |  | vn funnel-9.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme into cup=Destination |
| 4 | **look** | past | the March Hare *not said here* |  |  |  | again | at butter | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at it=Theme |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | could | Hatter |  |  |  |  | of nothing | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | Hatter *not said here* |  |  |  |  | than Hatter's first remark | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is** *in a quote* | past |  |  |  |  |  | butter *obl*; good *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **know** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 9 | **remark** |  | Hatter |  |  |  |  |  | nom remark «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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/8/34/)
- next →: [sentence 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/8/36/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VII. A Mad Tea-Party](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/8/)