---
title: He spoke with a very slow, distinct voice, as if he was dictating hi… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He spoke with a very slow, distinct voice, as if he was dictating his memoirs, and always looked over the shoulder of the person to whom he was talking. Who acts: dead. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 6, sentence 16

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He spoke with a very slow, distinct voice, as if he was dictating his memoirs, and always looked over the shoulder of the person to whom he was talking.

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**Who acts:** dead · **What happens:** speak, dictate, look, talk · **To what, where:** memoirs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (dead), 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:pg902:6:16
# text = He spoke with a very slow, distinct voice, as if he was dictating his memoirs, and always looked over the shoulder of the person to whom he was talking.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	distinct	distinct	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	dictating	dictate	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	memoirs	memoir	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	21	advmod	_	_
21	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
22	over	over	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	shoulder	shoulder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	27	nmod	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | dead |  |  |  |  | with a slow distinct voice | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with voice=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **dictate** *speech: other* | past · progressive | dead | dead's memoirs |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent memoir=Topic |
| 3 | **look** | past | dead *not said here* |  |  |  |  | over the shoulder of the person to the shoulder of the person to the shoulder; always *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent over shoulder=Theme |
| 4 | **talk** | past · progressive | dead |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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