---
title: “It’s a friend of mine—a Cheshire Cat,” said Alice: “allow me to int… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “It’s a friend of mine—a Cheshire Cat,” said Alice: “allow me to introduce it.” Who acts: curiosity, friend. 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 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“It’s a friend of mine—a Cheshire Cat,” said Alice: “allow me to introduce it.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** curiosity, friend · **What happens:** be, say, allow, introduce · **To what, where:** friend, curiosity · **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 (curiosity, friend), 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:pg11:9:88
# text = “It’s a friend of mine—a Cheshire Cat,” said Alice: “allow me to introduce it.”
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	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	mine	my	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	Cheshire	Cheshire	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	Cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	allow	allow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	iobj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	introduce	introduce	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | curiosity | a friend and a Cheshire Cat |  |  |  | of a friend and a Cheshire Cat *= friend* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a friend and a Cheshire Cat |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **allow** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  | a friend and a Cheshire Cat *= friend* |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer i=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **introduce** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | curiosity |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

<!-- .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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