---
title: “Shall I love you?” said the Swallow, who liked to come to the point… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Shall I love you?” said the Swallow, who liked to come to the point at once, and the Reed made him a low bow. Who acts: Swallow, Reed. 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 29

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“Shall I love you?” said the Swallow, who liked to come to the point at once, and the Reed made him a low bow.

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**Who acts:** Swallow, Reed · **What happens:** love, say, like, come, make · **To what, where:** you, point, low bow, Swallow · **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 (Swallow, Reed), 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:pg902:1:29
# text = “Shall I love you?” said the Swallow, who liked to come to the point at once, and the Reed made him a low bow.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	love	love	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	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	Swallow	Swallow	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	liked	like	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	point	point	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	Reed	Reed	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	bow	bow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **love** *in a quote* | shall | the Swallow *= swallow* | you |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer you=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the Swallow |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **like** | past | the Swallow |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **come** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the Swallow *not said here* |  |  | the point |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to point=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **make** | past | the Reed | a low bow | Swallow |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset he=Beneficiary bow=Product |

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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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