---
title: “They are like the Aurora Borealis,” said the King, who always answe… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “They are like the Aurora Borealis,” said the King, who always answered questions that were addressed to other people, “only much more natural. Who acts: fireworks, Aurora, King. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/5/114/)

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 5, sentence 114

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“They are like the Aurora Borealis,” said the King, who always answered questions that were addressed to other people, “only much more natural.

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**Who acts:** fireworks, Aurora, King · **What happens:** be, say, answer, address · **To what, where:** questions · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fireworks, Aurora, King), 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:pg902:5:114
# text = “They are like the Aurora Borealis,” said the King, who always answered questions that were addressed to other people, “only much more natural.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Aurora	Aurora	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
7	Borealis	Borealis	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
15	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	16	advmod	_	_
16	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
17	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	addressed	address	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	only	only	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	much	much	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	29	advmod	_	_
29	natural	natural	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | fireworks *= firework* |  |  |  |  | like the Aurora | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Aurora |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the King | questions |  |  |  | always *property* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent question=Eventuality |
| 4 | **address** | past · passive |  | questions |  |  |  | to other people | vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Destination |

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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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