---
title: He regarded himself as the happiest of mortals and promised to spare… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: He regarded himself as the happiest of mortals and promised to spare no effort to make life happy for the girl who had chosen him for her husband. Who acts: San. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 5, sentence 121

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He regarded himself as the happiest of mortals and promised to spare no effort to make life happy for the girl who had chosen him for her husband.

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**Who acts:** San · **What happens:** regard, promise, spare, make, choose · **To what, where:** San, effort, life, girl

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This is a sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 5. 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:pg78208:7:121
# text = He regarded himself as the happiest of mortals and promised to spare no effort to make life happy for the girl who had chosen him for her husband.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	regarded	regard	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obj	_	_
4	as	as	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	happiest	happy	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	2	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	mortals	mortal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	spare	spare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	14	det	_	_
14	effort	effort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
17	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
18	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	chosen	choose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	acl:relcl	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **regard** | past | San | San |  |  |  | as the happiest of mortals | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP PP.value»: agent=Agent himself=Theme as happy=Value |
| 2 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | San *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **spare** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | San *not said here* | no effort |  |  |  |  | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent effort=Asset |
| 4 | **make** | to-infinitive | San *not said here* | life |  |  |  | happy *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset life=Product |
| 5 | **choose** | past · perfect · passive |  | the girl |  |  |  | for girl's husband; San *obj* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary he=Theme |

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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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