---
title: “Of course; I knew I was discussing some interesting subject when I… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Of course; I knew I was discussing some interesting subject when I was so rudely interrupted. Who acts: Roman Candle. 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 35

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“Of course; I knew I was discussing some interesting subject when I was so rudely interrupted.

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**Who acts:** Roman Candle · **What happens:** know, discuss, interrupt · **To what, where:** interesting subject, Roman Candle · **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 (Roman Candle), 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:pg902:6:35
# text = “Of course; I knew I was discussing some interesting subject when I was so rudely interrupted.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Of	of	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADV	6	advmod	_	_
3	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	discussing	discuss	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	ccomp	_	_
10	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	12	det	_	_
11	interesting	interesting	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	subject	subject	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	rudely	rudely	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	interrupted	interrupt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** *in a quote* | past | the Roman Candle *= candle* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **discuss** *speech: other* *in a quote* | past · progressive | the Roman Candle *= candle* | some interesting subject |  |  |  |  | vn chit\_chat-37.6-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Topic |
| 3 | **interrupt** *in a quote* | past · passive |  | the Roman Candle *= candle* |  |  |  | rudely *property* | 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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