---
title: “Ah! that is always a very dangerous thing to do,” said the Duck. — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Ah! that is always a very dangerous thing to do,” said the Duck. Who acts: that, 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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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 5, sentence 83

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“Ah! that is always a very dangerous thing to do,” said the Duck.

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**Who acts:** that, Duck · **What happens:** be, do, say · **To what, where:** dangerous thing · **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 (that, 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:pg902:5:83
# text = “Ah! that is always a very dangerous thing to do,” said the Duck.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	10	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	nsubj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
6	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	10	advmod	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	dangerous	dangerous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	ccomp	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	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 | that | a dangerous thing |  |  |  | always *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the Duck *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the Duck |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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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