---
title: Breaking the seal on the letter, she read the following: — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: Breaking the seal on the letter, she read the following: Who acts: coincidence. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 6, sentence 130

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Breaking the seal on the letter, she read the following:

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**Who acts:** coincidence · **What happens:** break, read, follow · **To what, where:** seal, letter

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This is a sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (coincidence), 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:pg78208:8:132
# text = Breaking the seal on the letter, she read the following:
1	Breaking	break	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	seal	seal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	read	read	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	following	follow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break** | gerund | coincidence *not said here* | the seal |  | the letter |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer seal=Patient |
| 2 | **read** | past | coincidence |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **follow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=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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