---
title: The people, however, were grumbling and commenting, but the fear of… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: The people, however, were grumbling and commenting, but the fear of the tyrant kept them from expressing too openly their complaints. Who acts: people, fear. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 7, sentence 196

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The people, however, were grumbling and commenting, but the fear of the tyrant kept them from expressing too openly their complaints.

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**Who acts:** people, fear · **What happens:** grumble, comment, keep, express, fear, complain · **To what, where:** people, complaints, tyrant

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This is a sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, fear), 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:pg78208:9:198
# text = The people, however, were grumbling and commenting, but the fear of the tyrant kept them from expressing too openly their complaints.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	grumbling	grumble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	commenting	comment	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	tyrant	tyrant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	expressing	express	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
21	too	too	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	openly	openly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	complaints	complaint	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grumble** *speech: other* | past · progressive | the people |  |  |  |  | however *property* | vn complain-37.8 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **comment** *speech: other* | gerund | the people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn lecture-37.11-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **keep** | past | the fear of the tyrant | people |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 4 | **express** | gerund | the fear of the tyrant *not said here* | people's complaints |  |  |  | openly *property* | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent complaint=Theme |
| 5 | **fear** |  |  | the tyrant |  |  |  |  | nom fear «feeling transitive»: of=patient |
| 6 | **complain** |  | people |  |  |  |  |  | nom complaint «state intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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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