---
title: “What is the use of a statue if it cannot keep the rain off?” he sai… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “What is the use of a statue if it cannot keep the rain off?” he said; “I must look for a good chimney-pot,” and he determined to fly away. Who acts: drop, cloud. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/1/52/)

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 1, sentence 52

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“What is the use of a statue if it cannot keep the rain off?” he said; “I must look for a good chimney-pot,” and he determined to fly away.

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**Who acts:** drop, cloud · **What happens:** be, not keep off, say, look, determine, fly away · **To what, where:** use, rain · **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 (drop, cloud), 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:pg902:1:52
# text = “What is the use of a statue if it cannot keep the rain off?” he said; “I must look for a good chimney-pot,” and he determined to fly away.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	ccomp	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	statue	statue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	rain	rain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	off	off	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
28	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
29	chimney	chimney	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	pot	pot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	determined	determine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
38	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	xcomp	_	_
39	away	away	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the use |  |  |  | of a statue | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **keep off** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | can | drop | the rain |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rain=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | cloud |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **look** *in a quote* | must | cloud |  |  |  |  | for a good chimney pot | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for pot=Theme |
| 5 | **determine** | past | cloud |  |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **fly away** | to-infinitive | cloud *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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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