---
title: “You will never be in the best society unless you can stand on your… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “You will never be in the best society unless you can stand on your heads,” she kept saying to them; and every now and then she showed them how it was done. Who acts: You, she, society. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 4, sentence 1

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“You will never be in the best society unless you can stand on your heads,” she kept saying to them; and every now and then she showed them how it was done.

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**Who acts:** You, she, society · **What happens:** not be, stand, keep, say, show, be · **To what, where:** best society, heads · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, she, society), 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:pg902:4:1
# text = “You will never be in the best society unless you can stand on your heads,” she kept saying to them; and every now and then she showed them how it was done.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
3	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
4	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	amod	_	_
9	society	society	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	ccomp	_	_
10	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	xcomp	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	36	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
26	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	36	det	_	_
27	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	36	advmod	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	31	advmod	_	_
30	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	advcl	_	_
32	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	36	advmod	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
36	done	done	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | future | You |  |  | the best society |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **stand** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | can | you | the best society *not said here* |  | your heads |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent society=Theme on head=Destination |
| 3 | **keep** | past | she |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | she *not said here* |  | heads *= head* |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient |
| 5 | **show** | past | she | heads *= head* |  |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 6 | **is** | past | society |  |  |  | now | done *property* | tree rules |

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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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