---
title: “Why, indeed?” said a Butterfly, who was fluttering about after a su… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Why, indeed?” said a Butterfly, who was fluttering about after a sunbeam. Who acts: Butterfly. 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/pg902/2/83/)

<!-- 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/) / 83

# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 2, sentence 83

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Why, indeed?” said a Butterfly, who was fluttering about after a sunbeam.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Butterfly · **What happens:** say, flutter · **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 (Butterfly), 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:pg902:2:83
# text = “Why, indeed?” said a Butterfly, who was fluttering about after a sunbeam.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Butterfly	Butterfly	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	fluttering	flutter	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	ccomp	_	_
14	about	about	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	after	after	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sunbeam	sunbeam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **flutter** | past · progressive | a Butterfly |  |  |  | after a sunbeam | about *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/2/82/)
- next →: [sentence 84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/2/84/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/2/)