---
title: “Press closer, little Nightingale,” cried the Tree, “or the Day will… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Press closer, little Nightingale,” cried the Tree, “or the Day will come before the rose is finished.” Who acts: Tree, Day. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/3/11/)

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 3, sentence 11

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“Press closer, little Nightingale,” cried the Tree, “or the Day will come before the rose is finished.”

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**Who acts:** Tree, Day · **What happens:** press, cry, come, finish · **To what, where:** little Nightingale, rose · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tree, Day), 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:pg902:3:11
# text = “Press closer, little Nightingale,” cried the Tree, “or the Day will come before the rose is finished.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Press	press	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
3	closer	close	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	Nightingale	Nightingale	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
9	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Tree	Tree	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Day	Day	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
19	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	rose	rose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **press** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | little Nightingale |  |  |  | close *property* | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | the Tree |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **come** *in a quote* | future | the Day |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **finish** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | the rose |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality |

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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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