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title: They never hit me, of course; we swallows fly far too well for that,… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They never hit me, of course; we swallows fly far too well for that, and besides, I come of a family famous for its agility; but still, it was a mark of disrespect.” Who acts: stones, we, I, agility. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 1, with its dependen
---

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 1, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They never hit me, of course; we swallows fly far too well for that, and besides, I come of a family famous for its agility; but still, it was a mark of disrespect.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** stones, we, I, agility · **What happens:** not hit, fly, come, be · **To what, where:** me, mark

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (stones, we, I, agility), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg902:1:86
# text = They never hit me, of course; we swallows fly far too well for that, and besides, I come of a family famous for its agility; but still, it was a mark of disrespect.”
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	hit	hit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
9	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	swallows	swallow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	appos	_	_
11	fly	fly	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
12	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	11	advmod	_	_
13	too	too	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	fixed	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	besides	besides	INTJ	UH	_	22	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	famous	famous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	agility	agility	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	37	punct	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
32	still	still	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	mark	mark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	disrespect	disrespect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **hit** | past | stones *= stone* | me |  |  |  | of course | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent i=Theme of course=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **fly** | present | we |  |  |  |  | for that; far *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **come** | present | I |  |  |  |  | of a family | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme of family=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **is a** | past | agility | a mark |  |  | still | of disrespect | tree rules |

<!-- .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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