---
title: San-Houni’s few servants took care of the details of the packing but… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: San-Houni’s few servants took care of the details of the packing but he himself went in quest of a boatman who would agree to take him and his wife across the waters to the island. Who acts: few servants, trip, boatman, details. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 3,
---

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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 3, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
San-Houni’s few servants took care of the details of the packing but he himself went in quest of a boatman who would agree to take him and his wife across the waters to the island.

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**Who acts:** few servants, trip, boatman, details · **What happens:** take, go, agree, care, detail, quest · **To what, where:** care, quest, trip, waters, packing

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This is a sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (few servants, trip, boatman, details), 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:pg78208:5:58
# text = San-Houni’s few servants took care of the details of the packing but he himself went in quest of a boatman who would agree to take him and his wife across the waters to the island.
1	San	San	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	Houni	Houni	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’s	's	PART	POS	_	1	case	_	_
5	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	details	detail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	packing	packing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	16	nmod:unmarked	_	_
18	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	quest	quest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	boatman	boatman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	agree	agree	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl:relcl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	_
33	across	across	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | San's few servants | care of the details of the packing |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent care=Theme |
| 2 | **go** | past | trip |  |  | quest of a boatman |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in quest=Location |
| 3 | **agree** *speech: agree* | would | a boatman |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **take** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a boatman *not said here* | trip |  | the waters |  | to the island | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme to island=Destination |
| 5 | **care** |  | the details of the packing |  |  |  |  |  | nom care «act intransitive»: of=agent |
| 6 | **detail** |  |  | the packing |  |  |  |  | nom detail «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
| 7 | **quest** |  | a boatman |  |  |  |  |  | nom quest «cognition intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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