---
title: Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in, and the… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of the trees. Who acts: children. 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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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 3, sentence 90

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Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of the trees.

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**Who acts:** children · **What happens:** creep in, sit · **To what, where:** children, little hole, branches

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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 (children), 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:pg902:3:90
# text = Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of the trees.
1	Through	through	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	crept	creep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
12	in	in	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **creep in** | past · perfect · passive |  | the children |  | a little hole in the wall |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** | past · progressive | children *= child* |  |  | the branches of the trees |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in branch=Location |

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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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