Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter VIII. The Queen’s Croquet-Ground, sentence 108

The executioner’s argument was, that you couldn’t cut off a head unless there was a body to cut it off from: that he had never had to do such a thing before, and he wasn’t going to begin at _his_ time of life.

Who acts: argument, body, dispute, executioner · What happens: not be, be, cut off, not have, do, not go · To what, where: body, thing

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 (argument, body, dispute, executioner), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 executioner	det
2	executioner	executioner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 argument	nmod:poss
3	’s	's	PART	_	2 executioner	case
4	argument	argument	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 cut	nsubj:outer
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 cut	cop
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 cut	punct
7	that	that	SCONJ	_	11 cut	mark
8	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	11 cut	nsubj
9	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 cut	aux
10	n’t	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 cut	advmod
11	cut	cut	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
12	off	off	ADP	_	11 cut	compound:prt
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 head	det
14	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 cut	obj
15	unless	unless	SCONJ	_	17 was	mark
16	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	17 was	expl
17	was	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 cut	advcl
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 body	det
19	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 was	nsubj
20	to	to	PART	_	21 cut	mark
21	cut	cut	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 body	acl
22	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 cut	obj
23	off	off	ADP	_	21 cut	compound:prt
24	from	from	ADP	_	21 cut	obl
25	:	:	PUNCT	_	30 had	punct
26	that	that	SCONJ	_	30 had	mark
27	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	30 had	nsubj
28	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	30 had	aux
29	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	30 had	advmod
30	had	have	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	11 cut	parataxis
31	to	to	PART	_	32 do	mark
32	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	30 had	xcomp
33	such	such	DET	PronType=Ind	35 thing	det:predet
34	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	35 thing	det
35	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 do	obj
36	before	before	ADV	_	32 do	advmod
37	,	,	PUNCT	_	42 going	punct
38	and	and	CCONJ	_	42 going	cc
39	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	42 going	nsubj
40	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	42 going	aux
41	n’t	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	42 going	advmod
42	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	30 had	conj
43	to	to	PART	_	44 begin	mark
44	begin	begin	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	42 going	xcomp
45	at	at	ADP	_	49 time	case
46	_	_	PUNCT	_	45 at	punct
47	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	49 time	nmod:poss
48	_	_	PUNCT	_	49 time	punct
49	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	44 begin	obl
50	of	of	ADP	_	51 life	case
51	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	49 time	nmod
52	.	.	PUNCT	_	11 cut	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not is	could · past	the executioner's argument				cut property	tree rules
2	be a condition, not said to happen	past	a body		there			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	cut off	to-infinitive	a body not said here	body				vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector it=Eventuality
4	not have	past · perfect	dispute					tree rules
5	do	to-infinitive	dispute not said here	such thing			before property	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality
6	not go	past · progressive	dispute					vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
7	begin	to-infinitive	dispute not said here			time		vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
8	argue		the executioner					nom argument «communication transitive»: poss=agent

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.

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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11/9/108/