---
title: “Nothing of the kind,” answered the Duck, “every one must make a beg… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Nothing of the kind,” answered the Duck, “every one must make a beginning, and parents cannot be too patient.” Who acts: Nothing, one, parents. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 4, 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/pg902/4/5/)

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 4, sentence 5

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“Nothing of the kind,” answered the Duck, “every one must make a beginning, and parents cannot be too patient.”

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**Who acts:** Nothing, one, parents · **What happens:** answer, make, not be · **To what, where:** Duck, beginning · **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 (Nothing, one, parents), 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:pg902:4:5
# text = “Nothing of the kind,” answered the Duck, “every one must make a beginning, and parents cannot be too patient.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	8	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	det	_	_
14	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
21	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
22	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
25	too	too	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	patient	patient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Nothing |  | the Duck |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** *in a quote* | must | every one | a beginning |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset beginning=Product |
| 3 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | can | parents |  |  |  |  | patient *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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