---
title: To obtain revenge they could find nothing better to do than to taunt… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: To obtain revenge they could find nothing better to do than to taunt him about having no parents. Who acts: Su. 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 61

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To obtain revenge they could find nothing better to do than to taunt him about having no parents.

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**Who acts:** Su · **What happens:** obtain, find, do, taunt, have · **To what, where:** revenge, nothing, Rung, parents

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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 (Su), 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:pg78208:6:63
# text = To obtain revenge they could find nothing better to do than to taunt him about having no parents.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	obtain	obtain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
3	revenge	revenge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	6	obj	_	_
8	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	amod	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl	_	_
11	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	taunt	taunt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
16	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
17	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	18	det	_	_
18	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **obtain** | to-infinitive | Su *not said here* | revenge |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset revenge=Theme |
| 2 | **find** | could | Su | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **taunt** | to-infinitive |  | Rung |  |  |  |  | vn bully-59.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 5 | **have** | gerund |  | no parents |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent parent=Patient |

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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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