---
title: “There is a way,” answered the Tree; “but it is so terrible that I d… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “There is a way,” answered the Tree; “but it is so terrible that I dare not tell it to you.” Who acts: way, Tree. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 2, sentence 107

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“There is a way,” answered the Tree; “but it is so terrible that I dare not tell it to you.”

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**Who acts:** way, Tree · **What happens:** be, answer, tell · **To what, where:** way, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (way, Tree), 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:pg902:2:107
# text = “There is a way,” answered the Tree; “but it is so terrible that I dare not tell it to you.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
8	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Tree	Tree	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	dare	dare	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
22	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** *in a quote* | present | a way |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the Tree |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | way |  |  |  |  | terrible *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | the Tree *= tree* | way | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Topic to you=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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