---
title: The Student looked up from the grass, and listened, but he could not… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The Student looked up from the grass, and listened, but he could not understand what the Nightingale was saying to him, for he only knew the things that are written down in books. Who acts: Student, Nightingale. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 2, with 
---

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 2, sentence 124

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Student looked up from the grass, and listened, but he could not understand what the Nightingale was saying to him, for he only knew the things that are written down in books.

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**Who acts:** Student, Nightingale · **What happens:** look up, listen, not understand, say, know, write down · **To what, where:** Student, things, books · **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 (Student, Nightingale), 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:pg902:2:124
# text = The Student looked up from the grass, and listened, but he could not understand what the Nightingale was saying to him, for he only knew the things that are written down in books.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Student	Student	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	parataxis	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	21	obj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Nightingale	Nightingale	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	ccomp	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	only	only	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
31	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	acl:relcl	_	_
34	down	down	ADP	RP	_	33	compound:prt	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look up** | past | the Student |  |  |  |  | from the grass | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent from grass=Theme |
| 2 | **listen** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **understand** | could | Student |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · progressive | the Nightingale |  | Student |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=Topic to he=Recipient |
| 5 | **know** | past | Student | the things |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus |
| 6 | **write down** | present · passive |  | the things |  | books |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in book=Destination |

<!-- .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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