---
title: Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in he… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches. Who acts: Alice, ground, balls
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/9/72/)

<!-- 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 VIII. The Queen’s Croquet-Ground](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/9/) / 72

# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VIII. The Queen’s Croquet-Ground, sentence 72

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Alice, ground, balls, mallets, soldiers · **What happens:** think, not see, be, live, have, double up · **To what, where:** curious croquet ground, life, ridges, live hedgehogs, flamingoes, soldiers · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, ground, balls, mallets), 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:pg11:9:72
# text = Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.
1	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	ccomp	_	_
7	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	12	det:predet	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
9	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
10	croquet	croquet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	det	_	_
20	ridges	ridge	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	ccomp	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	furrows	furrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	balls	ball	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
26	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	live	live	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	hedgehogs	hedgehog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	mallets	mallet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
32	live	live	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
33	flamingoes	flamingoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nsubj	_	_
38	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
39	to	to	PART	TO	_	40	mark	_	_
40	double	double	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	xcomp	_	_
41	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	40	obj	_	_
42	up	up	ADP	RP	_	40	compound:prt	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
45	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	conj	_	_
46	on	on	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	obl	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
50	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
52	to	to	PART	TO	_	53	mark	_	_
53	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	conj	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	arches	arch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	53	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Alice |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **see** | past · perfect | Alice | such curious croquet ground |  | Alice's life |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ground=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is a** | past | ground | all ridges and furrows |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the balls | live hedgehogs |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **live** | present | the mallets | flamingoes |  |  |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme flamingoe=Location |
| 6 | **have** | past | the soldiers |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **double up** | to-infinitive | the soldiers *not said here* | soldiers *= soldier* |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient |
| 8 | **stand** | to-infinitive | the soldiers *not said here* |  |  | soldiers's hands and feet |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on hand=Location |
| 9 | **make** | to-infinitive | the soldiers *not said here* | the arches |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset arch=Product |

<!-- .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 71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/9/71/)
- next →: [sentence 73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/9/73/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VIII. The Queen’s Croquet-Ground](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/9/)