---
title: “Ah! what a trivial view of life!” said the Rocket; “but it is only… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Ah! what a trivial view of life!” said the Rocket; “but it is only what I expected. Who acts: view, I. 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 65

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“Ah! what a trivial view of life!” said the Rocket; “but it is only what I expected.

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**Who acts:** view, I · **What happens:** say, be, expect, view · **To what, where:** Rocket, life · **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 (view, I), 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:pg902:6:65
# text = “Ah! what a trivial view of life!” said the Rocket; “but it is only what I expected.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	nsubj:outer	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	trivial	trivial	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	view	view	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Rocket	rocket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	only	only	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	parataxis	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	expected	expect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the Rocket |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | view |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **expect** *in a quote* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **view** *in a quote* |  |  | life |  |  |  |  | nom view «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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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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