---
title: “Poor little Hans was afraid to say anything to this, and early the… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Poor little Hans was afraid to say anything to this, and early the next morning the Miller brought his sheep round to the cottage, and Hans started off with them to the mountain. Who acts: Poor little Hans, Miller, Hans. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, par
---

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 5, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Poor little Hans was afraid to say anything to this, and early the next morning the Miller brought his sheep round to the cottage, and Hans started off with them to the mountain.

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**Who acts:** Poor little Hans, Miller, Hans · **What happens:** be, say, bring, start off · **To what, where:** anything, this, next morning, sheep · **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 (Poor little Hans, Miller, Hans), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg902:5:27
# text = “Poor little Hans was afraid to say anything to this, and early the next morning the Miller brought his sheep round to the cottage, and Hans started off with them to the mountain.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	Hans	Hans	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	8	obj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	early	early	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl:unmarked	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Miller	Miller	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	round	round	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	cottage	cottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	Hans	Hans	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
31	off	off	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | past | Poor little Hans |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Poor little Hans *not said here* | anything | this |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent anything=Topic to this=Recipient |
| 3 | **be** *in a quote* |  | Poor little Hans *not said here* |  |  |  | morning |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **bring** *in a quote* | past | the Miller | the next morning *not said here* | Miller's sheep |  |  | to the cottage; round *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument sheep=Destination |
| 5 | **start off** *in a quote* | past | Hans |  |  |  |  | with sheep; to the mountain | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with they=Subeventuality |

<!-- .note -->
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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