---
title: Scarcely three days had passed after the birth of little Cheng-Si wh… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: Scarcely three days had passed after the birth of little Cheng-Si when her mother died. Who acts: mother. 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 18

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Scarcely three days had passed after the birth of little Cheng-Si when her mother died.

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**Who acts:** mother · **What happens:** pass, die · **To what, where:** Scarcely three days

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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 (mother), 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:pg78208:4:18
# text = Scarcely three days had passed after the birth of little Cheng-Si when her mother died.
1	Scarcely	scarcely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
2	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	after	after	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	Cheng	Cheng	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Si	Si	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
14	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	17	mark	_	_
15	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | past · perfect · passive |  | Scarcely three days |  |  | after the birth of little Cheng and Si |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: subject=Trajectory |
| 2 | **die** | past | Si's mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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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