The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 5, sentence 115

I prefer them to stars myself, as you always know when they are going to appear, and they are as delightful as my own flute-playing.

Who acts: I, you, fireworks · What happens: prefer, know, go, appear, be, play · To what, where: fireworks · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you, fireworks), 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	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	2 prefer	nsubj
2	prefer	prefer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 prefer	obj
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 stars	case
5	stars	star	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 prefer	obl
6	myself	myself	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Emp Reflex=Yes	2 prefer	obl:unmarked
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 know	punct
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	11 know	mark
9	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	11 know	nsubj
10	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	11 know	advmod
11	know	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 prefer	parataxis
12	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	15 going	advmod
13	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 going	nsubj
14	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 going	aux
15	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 know	ccomp
16	to	to	PART	_	17 appear	mark
17	appear	appear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 going	xcomp
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 delightful	punct
19	and	and	CCONJ	_	23 delightful	cc
20	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 delightful	nsubj
21	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	23 delightful	cop
22	as	as	ADV	_	23 delightful	advmod
23	delightful	delightful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 prefer	parataxis
24	as	as	SCONJ	_	29 playing	mark
25	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	29 playing	nmod:poss
26	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	29 playing	amod
27	flute	flute	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 playing	compound
28	-	-	PUNCT	_	27 flute	punct
29	playing	play	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	23 delightful	advcl
30	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 prefer	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	prefer	present	I	fireworks = firework	to stars; myself obl:unmarked	vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus
2	know	present	you		always property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
3	go	present · progressive	fireworks = firework			vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	appear	to-infinitive	fireworks = firework not said here			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	is	present	fireworks = firework		delightful property	tree rules
6	play	gerund	fireworks = firework not said here			vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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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