---
title: “Every good story-teller nowadays starts with the end, and then goes… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Every good story-teller nowadays starts with the end, and then goes on to the beginning, and concludes with the middle. Who acts: good story teller. 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/pg902/4/60/)

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 4, sentence 60

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“Every good story-teller nowadays starts with the end, and then goes on to the beginning, and concludes with the middle.

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**Who acts:** good story teller · **What happens:** nowaday, start, go on, conclude · **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 (good story teller), 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:pg902:4:60
# text = “Every good story-teller nowadays starts with the end, and then goes on to the beginning, and concludes with the middle.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
3	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
4	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	teller	teller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	nowadays	nowaday	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	starts	start	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
15	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
16	on	on	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	concludes	conclude	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **nowaday** *in a quote* | present | every good story teller |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **start** *in a quote* | present | every good story teller *not said here* |  |  |  | with the end |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with end=Subeventuality |
| 3 | **go on** *in a quote* | present | every good story teller *not said here* |  |  |  | to the beginning; then |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **conclude** *in a quote* | present | every good story teller *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with the middle | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality PP.subeventuality»: agent=Affector with middle=Subeventuality |

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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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