---
title: “Why is he weeping?” asked a little Green Lizard, as he ran past him… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Why is he weeping?” asked a little Green Lizard, as he ran past him with his tail in the air. Who acts: Rose. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/2/82/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Happy Prince, and Other Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/) / [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/2/) / 82

# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 2, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Why is he weeping?” asked a little Green Lizard, as he ran past him with his tail in the air.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Rose · **What happens:** weep, ask, run · **To what, where:** little Green Lizard, air · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Rose), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg902:2:82
# text = “Why is he weeping?” asked a little Green Lizard, as he ran past him with his tail in the air.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	weeping	weep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	Green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	Lizard	Lizard	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
17	past	past	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **weep** *in a quote* | present · progressive | Rose |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | a little Green Lizard |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent lizard=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **run** | past | Rose |  |  | the air |  | past lover; with Rose's tail | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme past he=Trajectory |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/2/81/)
- next →: [sentence 83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/2/83/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/2/)