---
title: One might have said it was like a cat entrapping a mouse. — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: One might have said it was like a cat entrapping a mouse. Who acts: vision, cat. 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 34

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One might have said it was like a cat entrapping a mouse.

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**Who acts:** vision, cat · **What happens:** say, be, entrap · **To what, where:** One, mouse · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (vision, cat), 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:pg78208:7:34
# text = One might have said it was like a cat entrapping a mouse.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	like	like	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	ccomp	_	_
10	entrapping	entrap	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	acl	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | might · perfect · passive |  | One |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic |
| 2 | **is** | past | vision |  |  |  |  | like a cat | tree rules |
| 3 | **entrap** | gerund | a cat *not said here* | a mouse |  |  |  |  | vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouse=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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