---
title: So the Swallow flew over the great city, and saw the rich making mer… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So the Swallow flew over the great city, and saw the rich making merry in their beautiful houses, while the beggars were sitting at the gates. Who acts: Swallow, beggars. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 2, sentence 14

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So the Swallow flew over the great city, and saw the rich making merry in their beautiful houses, while the beggars were sitting at the gates.

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**Who acts:** Swallow, beggars · **What happens:** fly, see, make, sit · **To what, where:** great city, gates

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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 (Swallow, beggars), 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:pg902:2:14
# text = So the Swallow flew over the great city, and saw the rich making merry in their beautiful houses, while the beggars were sitting at the gates.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Swallow	swallow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	over	over	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	_
14	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
15	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	beggars	beggar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	gates	gate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | the Swallow |  |  | the great city |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over city=Location |
| 2 | **see** | past | the Swallow *not said here* |  |  |  |  | rich *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **make** | gerund | the Swallow *not said here* |  |  |  |  | merry *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 4 | **sit** | past · progressive | the beggars |  |  | the gates |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at gate=Location |

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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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