---
title: He was forced to confess that it was impossible to land on the island. — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: He was forced to confess that it was impossible to land on the island. Who acts: San. 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 82

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He was forced to confess that it was impossible to land on the island.

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**Who acts:** San · **What happens:** force, confess, be, land · **To what, where:** San, island

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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 (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:pg78208:8:82
# text = He was forced to confess that it was impossible to land on the island.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	forced	force	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	confess	confess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	expl	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	ccomp	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	land	land	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	csubj	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **force** | past · passive |  | San |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **confess** | to-infinitive | San *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | San *not said here* |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **land** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | the island |  |  | vn pocket-9.10-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme on island=Destination |

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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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