--- title: “I could not ask for anything better, but why can’t I take my little… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics description: “I could not ask for anything better, but why can’t I take my little one along with me?” Who acts: I. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/6/1/) [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 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/6/) / 1 # Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 4, sentence 1 “I could not ask for anything better, but why can’t I take my little one along with me?” **Who acts:** I · **What happens:** not ask, not take · **To what, where:** little one This is a sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg78208:6:1 # text = “I could not ask for anything better, but why can’t I take my little one along with me?” 1 “ " PUNCT `` _ 5 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _ 3 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 5 aux _ _ 4 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 5 advmod _ _ 5 ask ask VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 0 root _ _ 6 for for ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 7 anything anything PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 5 obl _ _ 8 better good ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 7 amod _ SpaceAfter=No 9 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 10 but but CCONJ CC _ 15 cc _ _ 11 why why ADV WRB PronType=Int 15 advmod _ _ 12 ca can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 15 aux _ SpaceAfter=No 13 n’t not PART RB Polarity=Neg 15 advmod _ _ 14 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 15 nsubj _ _ 15 take take VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 advcl _ _ 16 my my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 18 nmod:poss _ _ 17 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 18 amod _ _ 18 one one NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 obj _ _ 19 along along ADV RB _ 15 advmod _ _ 20 with with ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 21 me I PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 15 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 22 ? ? PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 23 ” " PUNCT '' _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **not** **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | could | I | | | | | for anything | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **not** **take** *in a quote* | can | I | my little one | | | | with me; along *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 3, 188](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/5/188/) - next →: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/6/2/) - ↑ back to [Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78208/6/)