---
title: This terrible blow almost prostrated him but he continued to drag ou… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: This terrible blow almost prostrated him but he continued to drag out the same wretched existence. Who acts: terrible blow, sun. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 2, 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/pg78208/4/45/)

<!-- 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 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/4/) / 45

# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 2, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
This terrible blow almost prostrated him but he continued to drag out the same wretched existence.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** terrible blow, sun · **What happens:** prostrate, continue, drag out · **To what, where:** sun, same wretched existence

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (terrible blow, sun), 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:pg78208:4:45
# text = This terrible blow almost prostrated him but he continued to drag out the same wretched existence.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
2	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	prostrated	prostrate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	drag	drag	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	out	out	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	wretched	wretched	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	existence	existence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prostrate** | past | this terrible blow | sun |  |  |  | almost *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **continue** | past | sun |  |  |  |  |  | vn continue-55.3 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **drag out** | to-infinitive | sun *not said here* | the same wretched existence |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent existence=Theme |

<!-- .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 44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/4/44/)
- next →: [sentence 46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/4/46/)
- ↑ back to [Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/4/)