---
title: “Why so melancholy, father?” inquired the child. — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: “Why so melancholy, father?” inquired the child. Who acts: melancholy. 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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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 2, sentence 121

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“Why so melancholy, father?” inquired the child.

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**Who acts:** melancholy · **What happens:** inquire · **To what, where:** child

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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 (melancholy), 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:pg78208:4:122
# text = “Why so melancholy, father?” inquired the child.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
4	melancholy	melancholy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	inquired	inquire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **inquire** *speech: other* | past | melancholy and father |  | the child |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent child=Recipient |

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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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