---
title: When we see a ferocious dog on the highway attacking another dog, in… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: When we see a ferocious dog on the highway attacking another dog, incapable of defending itself, we hasten to help the weaker. Who acts: we, highway, incapable. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/13/31/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Winning Buddha's smile](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/) / [Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/13/) / 31

# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 11, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When we see a ferocious dog on the highway attacking another dog, incapable of defending itself, we hasten to help the weaker.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we, highway, incapable · **What happens:** see, attack, defend, hasten, help · **To what, where:** ferocious dog, highway, dog, incapable

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, highway, incapable), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg78208:13:31
# text = When we see a ferocious dog on the highway attacking another dog, incapable of defending itself, we hasten to help the weaker.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	ferocious	ferocious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	highway	highway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	attacking	attack	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	acl	_	_
11	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	12	det	_	_
12	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	incapable	incapable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
15	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
16	defending	defend	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	acl	_	_
17	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
19	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	hasten	hasten	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	weaker	weak	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | present | we | a ferocious dog and incapable |  | the highway |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dog=Stimulus |
| 2 | **attack** | gerund | the highway *not said here* | another dog |  |  |  |  | vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=Patient |
| 3 | **defend** | gerund | incapable *not said here* | incapable |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent itself=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **hasten** | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **help** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/13/30/)
- next →: [sentence 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/13/32/)
- ↑ back to [Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/13/)