---
title: The traders had prepared a magnificent altar covered with white and… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: The traders had prepared a magnificent altar covered with white and bearing curiously carved incense burners. 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 96

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The traders had prepared a magnificent altar covered with white and bearing curiously carved incense burners.

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**What happens:** prepare, cover, bear, carve · **To what, where:** traders, magnificent altar, carved incense burners

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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: 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:pg78208:8:98
# text = The traders had prepared a magnificent altar covered with white and bearing curiously carved incense burners.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	traders	trader	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	prepared	prepare	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	magnificent	magnificent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	altar	altar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	bearing	bear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
13	curiously	curiously	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	carved	carve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	amod	_	_
15	incense	incense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	burners	burner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prepare** | past · perfect · passive |  | the traders |  |  |  | a magnificent altar *obj* | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary altar=Product |
| 2 | **cover** | participle |  | a magnificent altar *not said here* |  |  |  | with white | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with white=Theme |
| 3 | **bear** | gerund |  | carved incense burners |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent burner=Patient |
| 4 | **carve** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | curiously *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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