---
title: Alice was rather doubtful whether she ought not to lie down on her f… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: Alice was rather doubtful whether she ought not to lie down on her face like the three gardeners, but she could not remember ever having heard of such a rule at processions; “and besides, what would be the use of a procession,” thought she, “if people had all to lie down upon their faces, so that th
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VIII. The Queen’s Croquet-Ground, sentence 23

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Alice was rather doubtful whether she ought not to lie down on her face like the three gardeners, but she could not remember ever having heard of such a rule at processions; “and besides, what would be the use of a procession,” thought she, “if people had all to lie down upon their faces, so that they couldn’t see it?”

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**Who acts:** Alice, people · **What happens:** be, not lie down, not remember, have, hear, beside · **To what, where:** face, use, faces · **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, people), 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:pg11:9:23
# text = Alice was rather doubtful whether she ought not to lie down on her face like the three gardeners, but she could not remember ever having heard of such a rule at processions; “and besides, what would be the use of a procession,” thought she, “if people had all to lie down upon their faces, so that they couldn’t see it?”
1	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	doubtful	doubtful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
7	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
11	down	down	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	like	like	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	gardeners	gardener	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	remember	remember	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
25	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	26	advmod	_	_
26	having	have	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	ccomp	_	_
27	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	xcomp	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	31	det:predet	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	rule	rule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	processions	procession	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	37	punct	_	_
35	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	besides	beside	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
39	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	43	nsubj	_	_
40	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
41	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	43	cop	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	ccomp	_	_
44	of	of	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	procession	procession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
49	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
50	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
52	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	55	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	55	mark	_	_
54	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	55	nsubj	_	_
55	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	50	parataxis	_	_
56	all	all	ADV	RB	_	58	advmod	_	_
57	to	to	PART	TO	_	58	mark	_	_
58	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	55	xcomp	_	_
59	down	down	ADV	RB	_	58	advmod	_	_
60	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
61	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	62	nmod:poss	_	_
62	faces	face	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	58	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	69	punct	_	_
64	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	69	mark	_	_
65	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	64	fixed	_	_
66	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	69	nsubj	_	_
67	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	69	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
68	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	69	advmod	_	_
69	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	58	parataxis	_	_
70	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	69	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
71	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	69	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
72	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	55	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Alice |  |  |  |  | doubtful *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **lie down** | ought | Alice |  |  | Alice's face like the three gardeners |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on face=Location |
| 3 | **not** **remember** | could | Alice |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | gerund |  |  |  |  | ever |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **hear** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | of such rule at processions | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of rule=Stimulus |
| 6 | **beside** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **is a** *in a quote* | would |  | the use |  |  |  | of a procession | tree rules |
| 8 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Alice *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 10 | **lie down** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  | people's faces |  | all, down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon face=Location |
| 11 | **not** **see** *in a quote* | could | people | use |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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