---
title: “And what, pray, is your idea of the duties of a devoted friend?” as… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “And what, pray, is your idea of the duties of a devoted friend?” asked a Green Linnet, who was sitting in a willow-tree hard by, and had overheard the conversation. Who acts: Green Linnet. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree an
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/4/11/)

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 4, sentence 11

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“And what, pray, is your idea of the duties of a devoted friend?” asked a Green Linnet, who was sitting in a willow-tree hard by, and had overheard the conversation.

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**Who acts:** Green Linnet · **What happens:** pray, be, ask, sit, overhear · **To what, where:** idea, willow tree, conversation · **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 (Green Linnet), 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:pg902:4:11
# text = “And what, pray, is your idea of the duties of a devoted friend?” asked a Green Linnet, who was sitting in a willow-tree hard by, and had overheard the conversation.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	pray	pray	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	duties	duty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	devoted	devoted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
19	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	Green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	Linnet	linnet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	acl	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	willow	willow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
32	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
33	by	by	ADP	IN	_	32	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	overheard	overhear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	ccomp	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	conversation	conversation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pray** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | your idea |  |  |  | of the duties of a devoted friend | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | a Green Linnet |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent what=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **sit** | past · progressive | a Green Linnet |  |  | a willow tree |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in tree=Location |
| 5 | **overhear** | past · perfect |  | the conversation |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer conversation=Stimulus |

<!-- .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.

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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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