---
title: “What a remarkable phenomenon,” said the Professor of Ornithology as… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “What a remarkable phenomenon,” said the Professor of Ornithology as he was passing over the bridge. Who acts: remarkable phenomenon, Professor. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 1, sentence 109

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“What a remarkable phenomenon,” said the Professor of Ornithology as he was passing over the bridge.

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**Who acts:** remarkable phenomenon, Professor · **What happens:** say, pass · **To what, where:** bridge · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (remarkable phenomenon, Professor), 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:pg902:1:109
# text = “What a remarkable phenomenon,” said the Professor of Ornithology as he was passing over the bridge.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	5	det:predet	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	remarkable	remarkable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	phenomenon	phenomenon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Professor	Professor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Ornithology	ornithology	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
17	over	over	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | what remarkable phenomenon |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **pass** | past · progressive | Professor |  |  | the bridge |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme over bridge=Location |

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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:** «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Project Gutenberg book 902 (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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