---
title: “And how do you like the Water-rat?” asked the Duck, who came paddli… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “And how do you like the Water-rat?” asked the Duck, who came paddling up some minutes afterwards. Who acts: you, Duck. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 5, 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/pg902/5/79/)

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 5, sentence 79

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“And how do you like the Water-rat?” asked the Duck, who came paddling up some minutes afterwards.

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**Who acts:** you, Duck · **What happens:** like, ask, come, paddle up · **To what, where:** Water rat · **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 (you, Duck), 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:pg902:5:79
# text = “And how do you like the Water-rat?” asked the Duck, who came paddling up some minutes afterwards.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
3	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
4	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	Water	Water	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	rat	rat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
13	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Duck	Duck	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
18	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
19	paddling	paddle	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	xcomp	_	_
20	up	up	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
22	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl:unmarked	_	_
23	afterwards	afterwards	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **like** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you | the Water rat |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot rat=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the Duck |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **come** | past | the Duck |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **paddle up** | gerund | the Duck *not said here* |  |  |  | minute | afterwards *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |

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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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