---
title: I have dug a lake in my garden to attract the swans, but in vain are… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: I have dug a lake in my garden to attract the swans, but in vain are my labors. 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.
---

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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 4, sentence 153

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I have dug a lake in my garden to attract the swans, but in vain are my labors.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** dig, attract, be · **To what, where:** lake, garden, swans, vain labors

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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 (I), 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:pg78208:6:155
# text = I have dug a lake in my garden to attract the swans, but in vain are my labors.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	dug	dig	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	attract	attract	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
17	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	labors	labor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dig** | present · perfect | I | a lake |  | my garden |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent lake=Theme in garden=Location |
| 2 | **attract** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | the swans |  |  |  |  | vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent swan=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | present | I *not said here* |  |  | my vain labors |  | my *nmod:poss* | tree rules |

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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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