---
title: He is trying to finish a play for the Director of the Theatre, but h… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He is trying to finish a play for the Director of the Theatre, but he is too cold to write any more. Who acts: Swallow. 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 128

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He is trying to finish a play for the Director of the Theatre, but he is too cold to write any more.

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**Who acts:** Swallow · **What happens:** try, finish, be, write · **To what, where:** play

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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 (Swallow), 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:pg902:1:128
# text = He is trying to finish a play for the Director of the Theatre, but he is too cold to write any more.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	finish	finish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	play	play	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Director	director	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Theatre	theatre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	too	too	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
22	any	any	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | present · progressive | Swallow |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **finish** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Swallow *not said here* | a play |  |  |  | for the Director of the Theatre | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality play=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** | present | Swallow |  |  |  |  | cold *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **write** | to-infinitive | Swallow *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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