---
title: Several persons were already occupying it but it was too dark to dis… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: Several persons were already occupying it but it was too dark to distinguish any of them clearly. Who acts: Several persons, room. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 9, sentence 113

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Several persons were already occupying it but it was too dark to distinguish any of them clearly.

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**Who acts:** Several persons, room · **What happens:** occupy, be, distinguish · **To what, where:** room, any

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This is a sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Several persons, room), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg78208:11:115
# text = Several persons were already occupying it but it was too dark to distinguish any of them clearly.
1	Several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	persons	person	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	already	already	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	occupying	occupy	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	too	too	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	distinguish	distinguish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
14	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	13	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nmod	_	_
17	clearly	clearly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **occupy** | past · progressive | Several persons | room |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus it=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | room |  |  |  |  | dark *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **distinguish** | to-infinitive | room *not said here* | any of persons |  |  |  | clearly *property* | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Attribute any=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:** «Winning Buddha's smile», Project Gutenberg book 78208 (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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