---
title: But the Nightingale understood the secret of the Student’s sorrow, a… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the Nightingale understood the secret of the Student’s sorrow, and she sat silent in the oak-tree, and thought about the mystery of Love. Who acts: Nightingale, Lizard, Student. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 2, sentence 87

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But the Nightingale understood the secret of the Student’s sorrow, and she sat silent in the oak-tree, and thought about the mystery of Love.

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**Who acts:** Nightingale, Lizard, Student · **What happens:** understand, sit, think, sorrow · **To what, where:** secret, oak tree

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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, Lizard, Student), 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:pg902:2:87
# text = But the Nightingale understood the secret of the Student’s sorrow, and she sat silent in the oak-tree, and thought about the mystery of Love.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Nightingale	Nightingale	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	understood	understand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Student	Student	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’s	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
16	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	xcomp	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
19	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
25	about	about	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	mystery	mystery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	Love	love	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **understand** | past | the Nightingale | the secret of the Student's sorrow |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer secret=Stimulus |
| 2 | **sit** | past | Lizard |  |  | the oak tree |  | silent *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in tree=Location |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Lizard *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the mystery of Love | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about mystery=Topic |
| 4 | **sorrow** |  | the Student |  |  |  |  |  | nom sorrow «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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