---
title: Anybody can say charming things and try to please and to flatter, bu… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Anybody can say charming things and try to please and to flatter, but a true friend always says unpleasant things, and does not mind giving pain. Who acts: Anybody, true friend. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/5/8/)

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 5, sentence 8

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Anybody can say charming things and try to please and to flatter, but a true friend always says unpleasant things, and does not mind giving pain.

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**Who acts:** Anybody, true friend · **What happens:** say, try, please, flatter, not mind, give · **To what, where:** charming things, unpleasant things, pain · **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 (Anybody, true friend), 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:pg902:5:8
# text = Anybody can say charming things and try to please and to flatter, but a true friend always says unpleasant things, and does not mind giving pain.
1	Anybody	anybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	charming	charming	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	please	please	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	flatter	flatter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	19	advmod	_	_
19	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
20	unpleasant	unpleasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	mind	mind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
27	giving	give	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	xcomp	_	_
28	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | can | Anybody | charming things |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent thing=Topic |
| 2 | **try** | infinitive | Anybody *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **please** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Anybody *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **flatter** | to-infinitive | Anybody *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | a true friend | unpleasant things |  |  |  | always *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **mind** | present · do-support |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 7 | **give** | gerund |  | pain |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pain=Theme |

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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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