---
title: “If you want to give pleasure to others,” cried the Roman Candle, “y… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “If you want to give pleasure to others,” cried the Roman Candle, “you had better keep yourself dry.” Who acts: you, 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 52

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“If you want to give pleasure to others,” cried the Roman Candle, “you had better keep yourself dry.”

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**Who acts:** you, Roman Candle · **What happens:** want, give, cry, have, keep · **To what, where:** pleasure, others, yourself · **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 (you, 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:pg902:6:52
# text = “If you want to give pleasure to others,” cried the Roman Candle, “you had better keep yourself dry.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
12	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	Roman	roman	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	Candle	Candle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
20	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	19	xcomp	_	_
21	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	yourself	yourself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obj	_	_
23	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **give** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | pleasure | others |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent pleasure=Theme to other=Recipient |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | the Roman Candle |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** *in a quote* | past | you |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **keep** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* | yourself |  |  |  | dry *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent yourself=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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