---
title: Like the flies that spend their lifetime in a single sun’s ray, we l… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: Like the flies that spend their lifetime in a single sun’s ray, we live but a moment. Who acts: flies, we, single sun. 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 71

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Like the flies that spend their lifetime in a single sun’s ray, we live but a moment.

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**Who acts:** flies, we, single sun · **What happens:** spend, live, ray · **To what, where:** lifetime, ray

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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 (flies, we, single sun), 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:pg78208:9:71
# text = Like the flies that spend their lifetime in a single sun’s ray, we live but a moment.
1	Like	like	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	flies	fly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	spend	spend	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	lifetime	lifetime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’s	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	_
13	ray	ray	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
15	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	live	live	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spend** | present | the flies | flies's lifetime |  | a single sun's ray |  |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lifetime=Asset |
| 2 | **live** | present | we |  |  |  |  | like the flies | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **ray** |  | a single sun |  |  |  |  |  | nom ray «phenomenon transitive»: poss=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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