---
title: “‘It is certainly a great privilege to hear you talk,’ answered litt… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “‘It is certainly a great privilege to hear you talk,’ answered little Hans, sitting down, and wiping his forehead, ‘a very great privilege. Who acts: work, great privilege, you. 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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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 5, sentence 21

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“‘It is certainly a great privilege to hear you talk,’ answered little Hans, sitting down, and wiping his forehead, ‘a very great privilege.

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**Who acts:** work, great privilege, you · **What happens:** be, hear, talk, answer, sit down, wipe · **To what, where:** great privilege, you, little Hans, forehead

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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 (work, great privilege, you), 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:pg902:5:21
# text = “‘It is certainly a great privilege to hear you talk,’ answered little Hans, sitting down, and wiping his forehead, ‘a very great privilege.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	privilege	privilege	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
15	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	Hans	Han	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	conj	_	_
20	down	down	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	wiping	wipe	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	conj	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	very	very	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	privilege	privilege	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | work | a great privilege |  |  |  | certainly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **hear** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | a great privilege *not said here* | you |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **talk** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **answer** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | a great privilege |  | little Hans |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent han=Eventuality |
| 5 | **sit down** *in a quote* | gerund | a great privilege *not said here* |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **wipe** *in a quote* | gerund | a great privilege *not said here* | privilege's forehead |  |  |  | a great privilege *obl* | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent forehead=Source |

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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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