---
title: It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold.” 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 78

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It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold.”

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**What happens:** not purchase, weigh out · **To what, where:** pain, balance

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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: 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:pg902:2:78
# text = It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold.”
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	purchased	purchase	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	merchants	merchant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	14	cc	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	weighed	weigh	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
15	out	out	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	balance	balance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **purchase** | may · passive |  | pain |  |  |  | of the merchants | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **weigh out** | can · passive |  | pain |  | the balance for gold |  |  | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: subject=Value |

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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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