---
title: A man, whose daughter was obliged to beg to keep him from starving,… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: A man, whose daughter was obliged to beg to keep him from starving, would never be able to fulfill the promise which he had signed. Who acts: man. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 2, 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/pg78208/4/118/)

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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 2, sentence 118

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A man, whose daughter was obliged to beg to keep him from starving, would never be able to fulfill the promise which he had signed.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** oblige, beg, keep, starve, not be, fulfill · **To what, where:** man, promise

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This is a sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg78208:4:119
# text = A man, whose daughter was obliged to beg to keep him from starving, would never be able to fulfill the promise which he had signed.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	beg	beg	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	starving	starve	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
17	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
19	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	fulfill	fulfill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	promise	promise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	obj	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	signed	sign	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | a man and a man and a man's daughter's daughter |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 2 | **beg** *speech: request* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **keep** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | man |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **starve** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **is** | would |  |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **fulfill** | to-infinitive |  | the promise |  |  |  |  | vn act-114 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent promise=Eventuality |
| 7 | **sign** | past · perfect | man | the promise |  |  |  |  | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent which=Destination |

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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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