---
title: So the Nightingale sang to the Oak-tree, and her voice was like wate… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So the Nightingale sang to the Oak-tree, and her voice was like water bubbling from a silver jar. Who acts: Nightingale, voice, like water. 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 127

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So the Nightingale sang to the Oak-tree, and her voice was like water bubbling from a silver jar.

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**Who acts:** Nightingale, voice, like water · **What happens:** sing, be, bubble · **To what, where:** Oak tree, like water, silver jar

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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 (Nightingale, voice, like water), 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:pg902:2:127
# text = So the Nightingale sang to the Oak-tree, and her voice was like water bubbling from a silver jar.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Nightingale	Nightingale	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	Oak	Oak	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	like	like	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
17	bubbling	bubble	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	acl	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	jar	jar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | the Nightingale |  | the Oak tree |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to tree=Recipient |
| 2 | **is a** | past | love's voice | like water |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **bubble** | gerund | like water *not said here* |  |  | a silver jar |  |  | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP.theme V PP.source»: agent=Theme from jar=Source |

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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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