The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 3, sentence 78

“I cannot understand why the Spring is so late in coming,” said the Selfish Giant, as he sat at the window and looked out at his cold white garden; “I hope there will be a change in the weather.”

Who acts: I, Spring, Selfish, Frost, change · What happens: not understand, be, come, say, sit, look out · To what, where: window, cold white garden · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Spring, Selfish, Frost), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	“	"	PUNCT	_	5 understand	punct
2	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	5 understand	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 understand	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 understand	advmod
5	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	11 late	advmod
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Spring	det
8	Spring	spring	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 late	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 late	cop
10	so	so	ADV	_	11 late	advmod
11	late	late	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 said	ccomp
12	in	in	SCONJ	_	13 coming	mark
13	coming	come	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	16 said	advcl
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 coming	punct
15	”	"	PUNCT	_	13 coming	punct
16	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 understand	advcl
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 Selfish	det
18	Selfish	selfish	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 Giant	nsubj
19	Giant	giant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 said	ccomp
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 sat	punct
21	as	as	SCONJ	_	23 sat	mark
22	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 sat	nsubj
23	sat	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 said	conj
24	at	at	ADP	_	26 window	case
25	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 window	det
26	window	window	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 sat	obl
27	and	and	CCONJ	_	28 looked	cc
28	looked	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	23 sat	conj
29	out	out	ADP	_	28 looked	compound:prt
30	at	at	ADP	_	34 garden	case
31	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	34 garden	nmod:poss
32	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	34 garden	amod
33	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	34 garden	amod
34	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 looked	obl
35	;	;	PUNCT	_	38 hope	punct
36	“	"	PUNCT	_	38 hope	punct
37	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	38 hope	nsubj
38	hope	hope	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 understand	conj
39	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	41 be	expl
40	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	41 be	aux
41	be	be	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	38 hope	ccomp
42	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	43 change	det
43	change	change	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 be	nsubj
44	in	in	ADP	_	46 weather	case
45	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	46 weather	det
46	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 change	nmod
47	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 understand	punct
48	”	"	PUNCT	_	5 understand	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	not understand in a quote	can	I			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	is in a quote	present	the Spring		late property	tree rules
3	come in a quote	gerund				vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	say speech: assert	past	I not said here			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
5	sit	past	Selfish	the window		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at window=Location
6	look out	past	Selfish not said here	Hail's cold white garden		vn caring-75.2-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent
7	hope in a quote	present	Frost			vn long-32.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
8	be in a quote	future	a change in the weather	there		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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.

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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