---
title: “A person who, because he has corns himself, always treads on other… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “A person who, because he has corns himself, always treads on other people’s toes,” answered the Roman Candle in a low whisper; and the Cracker nearly exploded with laughter. Who acts: person, Roman Candle, Cracker. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 6, w
---

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# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 6, sentence 39

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“A person who, because he has corns himself, always treads on other people’s toes,” answered the Roman Candle in a low whisper; and the Cracker nearly exploded with laughter.

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**Who acts:** person, Roman Candle, Cracker · **What happens:** have, tread, answer, explode · **To what, where:** corns, toes, low whisper · **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 (person, Roman Candle, Cracker), 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:pg902:6:39
# text = “A person who, because he has corns himself, always treads on other people’s toes,” answered the Roman Candle in a low whisper; and the Cracker nearly exploded with laughter.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
9	corns	corn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
10	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	9	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	13	advmod	_	_
13	treads	tread	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	’s	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	toes	toe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
21	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	Roman	roman	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	Candle	Candle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	whisper	whisper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	34	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	Cracker	Cracker	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
33	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	exploded	explode	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
35	with	with	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	laughter	laughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | present | a person | corns  person |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent corn=Patient |
| 2 | **tread** *in a quote* | present | a person *not said here* |  |  | other people's toes |  | always *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on toe=Trajectory |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the Roman Candle |  |  | a low whisper |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **explode** | past | the Cracker |  |  |  |  | with laughter; nearly *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with laughter=Theme |

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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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