---
title: The sledge was shaped like a great golden swan, and between the swan… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The sledge was shaped like a great golden swan, and between the swan’s wings lay the little Princess herself. Who acts: wings. 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 89

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The sledge was shaped like a great golden swan, and between the swan’s wings lay the little Princess herself.

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**Who acts:** wings · **What happens:** shape, lay · **To what, where:** sledge, little Princess

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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 (wings), 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:pg902:5:89
# text = The sledge was shaped like a great golden swan, and between the swan’s wings lay the little Princess herself.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sledge	sledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	shaped	shape	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	like	like	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
8	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	swan	swan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	between	between	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	swan	swan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’s	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shape** | past · passive |  | the sledge |  |  |  | like a great golden swan | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 2 | **lay** | present | the swan's wings | the little Princess |  |  |  | Princess *obl* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent princess=Result |

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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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