---
title: “But they have not lost their only son,” said the Roman Candle; “no… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “But they have not lost their only son,” said the Roman Candle; “no misfortune has happened to them at all.” Who acts: people, Roman Candle, misfortune. 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 72

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“But they have not lost their only son,” said the Roman Candle; “no misfortune has happened to them at all.”

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**Who acts:** people, Roman Candle, misfortune · **What happens:** not lose, say, happen · **To what, where:** only son, people, all · **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 (people, Roman Candle, misfortune), 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:pg902:6:72
# text = “But they have not lost their only son,” said the Roman Candle; “no misfortune has happened to them at all.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	ccomp	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
12	said	say	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	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
19	misfortune	misfortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **lose** *in a quote* | present · perfect | people | people's only son |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Roman Candle |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **happen** *in a quote* | present · perfect | no misfortune |  | people | all |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at all=Location |

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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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