In Ghostly Japan, Opening, sentence 153

Sometimes in Buddhist sermons the destruction of Karma by virtuous effort is likened to the burning of incense by a pure flame,—sometimes, again, the life of man is compared to the smoke of incense.

Who acts: pure flame, incense · What happens: sermon, liken, compare, destroy, smoke · To what, where: destruction, Buddhist, virtuous effort, life, Karma

This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Opening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pure flame, incense), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 sermons	advmod
2	in	in	ADP	_	3 Buddhist	case
3	Buddhist	Buddhist	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 sermons	obl
4	sermons	sermon	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 destruction	det
6	destruction	destruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 sermons	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 Karma	case
8	Karma	Karma	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 destruction	nmod
9	by	by	SCONJ	_	13 likened	mark
10	virtuous	virtuous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 effort	amod
11	effort	effort	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 likened	nsubj:pass
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 likened	aux:pass
13	likened	liken	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 sermons	advcl
14	to	to	ADP	_	16 burning	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 burning	det
16	burning	burning	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 likened	obl
17	of	of	ADP	_	18 incense	case
18	incense	incense	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 burning	nmod
19	by	by	ADP	_	22 flame	case
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 flame	det
21	pure	pure	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 flame	amod
22	flame	flame	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 likened	obl
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 compared	punct
24	—	-	PUNCT	_	27 again	punct
25	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	PronType=Ind	27 again	advmod
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 again	punct
27	again	again	ADV	_	34 compared	advmod
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 compared	punct
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 life	det
30	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 compared	nsubj:pass
31	of	of	ADP	_	32 man	case
32	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 life	nmod
33	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	34 compared	aux:pass
34	compared	compare	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 sermons	advcl
35	to	to	ADP	_	37 smoke	case
36	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	37 smoke	det
37	smoke	smoke	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 compared	obl
38	of	of	ADP	_	39 incense	case
39	incense	incense	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 smoke	nmod
40	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 sermons	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sermon	present		the destruction of Karma	Buddhist		sometimes property	tree rules
2	liken	present · passive	a pure flame	virtuous effort			to the burning of incense	tree rules
3	compare	present · passive		the life of man		again	to the smoke of incense	vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
4	destroy			Karma				nom destruction «act transitive»: of=patient
5	smoke		incense					nom smoke «phenomenon intransitive»: of=agent

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.

Text: «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Project Gutenberg book 8128 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/1/153/

🌲 In Ghostly Japan, Opening, sentence 153

The tree

Pragmatics

In Ghostly Japan, Opening, sentence 153