---
title: “‘A plank of wood!’ said the Miller; ‘why, that is just what I want… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “‘A plank of wood!’ said the Miller; ‘why, that is just what I want for the roof of my barn. Who acts: plank, that. 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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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 4, sentence 97

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“‘A plank of wood!’ said the Miller; ‘why, that is just what I want for the roof of my barn.

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**Who acts:** plank, that · **What happens:** say, be, want · **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 (plank, that), 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:pg902:4:97
# text = “‘A plank of wood!’ said the Miller; ‘why, that is just what I want for the roof of my barn.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	plank	plank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Miller	Miller	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	just	just	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	ccomp	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	barn	barn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: express* *in a quote* | past | a plank of wood |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | that |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **want** *in a quote* | present | a plank of wood *= plank* |  |  |  |  | for the roof of my barn | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

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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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