---
title: Alice could think of nothing else to say but “It belongs to the Duch… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: Alice could think of nothing else to say but “It belongs to the Duchess: you’d better ask _her_ about it.” Who acts: Alice, party, you. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter VIII. The Queen’s Croquet-Ground, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VIII. The Queen’s Croquet-Ground, sentence 112

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Alice could think of nothing else to say but “It belongs to the Duchess: you’d better ask \_her\_ about it.”

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**Who acts:** Alice, party, you · **What happens:** think, say, belong, 'd, ask · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter VIII. The Queen’s Croquet-Ground. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Alice, party, you), 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:pg11:9:112
# text = Alice could think of nothing else to say but “It belongs to the Duchess: you’d better ask _her_ about it.”
1	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	obl	_	_
6	else	else	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	belongs	belong	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Duchess	Duchess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’d	'd	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	18	advmod	_	_
20	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
21	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	20	punct	_	_
24	about	about	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | could | Alice |  |  |  |  | of nothing | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | Alice *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **belong** *in a quote* | present | party |  |  |  |  | to the Duchess | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **'d** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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