---
title: In fact, it was only yesterday that I heard the farmer’s wife say to… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In fact, it was only yesterday that I heard the farmer’s wife say to her mother that she could not get a wink of sleep at night on account of us. Who acts: moon, I, wife. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/6/136/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Happy Prince, and Other Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/) / [Opening, part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/6/) / 136

# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 6, sentence 136

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In fact, it was only yesterday that I heard the farmer’s wife say to her mother that she could not get a wink of sleep at night on account of us.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** moon, I, wife · **What happens:** be, hear, say, not get, account · **To what, where:** yesterday, fact, mother, wink, us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (moon, I, wife), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg902:6:136
# text = In fact, it was only yesterday that I heard the farmer’s wife say to her mother that she could not get a wink of sleep at night on account of us.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	only	only	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	yesterday	yesterday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	obj	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	wink	wink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	sleep	sleep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | moon | yesterday |  | fact |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **hear** | past | I | yesterday |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the farmer's wife |  | wife's mother |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to mother=Recipient |
| 4 | **not** **get** | could | wife | a wink of sleep |  |  | night |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer wink=Stimulus |
| 5 | **account** |  |  | us |  |  |  |  | nom account «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 135](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/6/135/)
- next →: [sentence 137](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/6/137/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/6/)