---
title: I can scarcely believe that this misfortune took place while I was l… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: I can scarcely believe that this misfortune took place while I was leading this life of idleness and pleasure.” Who acts: I, misfortune. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 1, sentence 40

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I can scarcely believe that this misfortune took place while I was leading this life of idleness and pleasure.”

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**Who acts:** I, misfortune · **What happens:** believe, take, lead · **To what, where:** place, life · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, misfortune), 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:pg78208:3:40
# text = I can scarcely believe that this misfortune took place while I was leading this life of idleness and pleasure.”
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	misfortune	misfortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
9	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	leading	lead	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
14	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
15	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	idleness	idleness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | can | I |  |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **take** | past | this misfortune | place |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Theme |
| 3 | **lead** | past · progressive | I | this life of idleness and pleasure |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=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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