---
title: The best thing in him was the gunpowder, and that was so wet with te… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The best thing in him was the gunpowder, and that was so wet with tears that it was of no use. Who acts: best thing, that, thing. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 6, sentence 107

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The best thing in him was the gunpowder, and that was so wet with tears that it was of no use.

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**Who acts:** best thing, that, thing · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** gunpowder

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This is a sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (best thing, that, thing), 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:pg902:6:107
# text = The best thing in him was the gunpowder, and that was so wet with tears that it was of no use.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	gunpowder	gunpowder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	22	det	_	_
22	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the best thing in Bang | the gunpowder |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | that |  |  |  |  | with tears; wet *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | thing |  |  |  |  | of no use | tree rules |

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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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