---
title: He walked on for a few paces and then, yielding to some indescribabl… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: He walked on for a few paces and then, yielding to some indescribable impulse, he retraced his steps. Who acts: San. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 4, sentence 112

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He walked on for a few paces and then, yielding to some indescribable impulse, he retraced his steps.

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**Who acts:** San · **What happens:** walk on, yield, retrace, step · **To what, where:** steps

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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 (San), 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:pg78208:6:114
# text = He walked on for a few paces and then, yielding to some indescribable impulse, he retraced his steps.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	paces	pace	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	yielding	yield	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	15	det	_	_
14	indescribable	indescribable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	impulse	impulse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	retraced	retrace	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk on** | past | San |  |  |  |  | for a few paces | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **yield** | gerund | San *not said here* |  |  |  | then | to some indescribable impulse | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to impulse=Theme |
| 3 | **retrace** | past | San | San's steps |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **step** |  | San |  |  |  |  |  | nom step «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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