---
title: “Why can’t you be like the Happy Prince?” asked a sensible mother of… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Why can’t you be like the Happy Prince?” asked a sensible mother of her little boy who was crying for the moon. Who acts: you, sensible mother, little boy. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/1/20/)

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 1, sentence 20

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“Why can’t you be like the Happy Prince?” asked a sensible mother of her little boy who was crying for the moon.

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**Who acts:** you, sensible mother, little boy · **What happens:** be, ask, cry · **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 (you, sensible mother, little boy), 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:pg902:1:20
# text = “Why can’t you be like the Happy Prince?” asked a sensible mother of her little boy who was crying for the moon.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
3	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
7	like	like	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	Happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
13	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	sensible	sensible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	acl:relcl	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | infinitive | you |  |  |  |  | like the Happy Prince | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | a sensible mother of CARLOS's little boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | past · progressive | CARLOS's little boy |  |  |  |  | for the moon | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient S\_INF»: agent=Agent for moon=Recipient |

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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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- ← previous: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/1/19/)
- next →: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/1/21/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/1/)