---
title: “What, he is dead?” cried the old man, bursting into tears. — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: “What, he is dead?” cried the old man, bursting into tears. Who acts: father. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/12/160/)

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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 10, sentence 160

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“What, he is dead?” cried the old man, bursting into tears.

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**Who acts:** father · **What happens:** be, cry, burst · **To what, where:** old man, tears · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father), 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:pg78208:12:162
# text = “What, he is dead?” cried the old man, bursting into tears.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	bursting	burst	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | father |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past |  | the old man |  |  |  | What *nsubj* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Topic |
| 3 | **burst** | gerund |  |  |  | tears |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=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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