---
title: A turtle caught me on his back and carried me to this island where I… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: A turtle caught me on his back and carried me to this island where I have been for several days.” Who acts: turtle. 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 20

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A turtle caught me on his back and carried me to this island where I have been for several days.”

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**Who acts:** turtle · **What happens:** catch, carry · **To what, where:** me, back, island

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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 (turtle), 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:pg78208:9:20
# text = A turtle caught me on his back and carried me to this island where I have been for several days.”
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	det	_	_
13	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	17	advmod	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	acl:relcl	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | a turtle | me |  | turtle's back |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 2 | **carry** | past | a turtle *not said here* | me |  | this island |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent i=Theme to 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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