---
title: “It’s no use speaking to it,” she thought, “till its ears have come,… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “It’s no use speaking to it,” she thought, “till its ears have come, or at least one of them.” Who acts: sound, use, eye. 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 clause.
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VIII. The Queen’s Croquet-Ground, sentence 80

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“It’s no use speaking to it,” she thought, “till its ears have come, or at least one of them.”

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**Who acts:** sound, use, eye · **What happens:** be, speak, think, come · **To what, where:** use, sound · **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 (sound, use, eye), 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:pg11:9:80
# text = “It’s no use speaking to it,” she thought, “till its ears have come, or at least one of them.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
6	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	till	till	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
18	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	24	nmod	_	_
24	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	parataxis	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | sound | no use |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | gerund | no use *not said here* |  | sound |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to it=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | eye |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **come** *in a quote* | present · perfect |  |  |  |  | till sound's ears |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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