In Ghostly Japan, Opening, sentence 29

For there was not any ground,—neither beneath him nor about him nor above him,—but a heaping only, monstrous and measureless, of skulls and fragments of skulls and dust of bone,—with a shimmer of shed teeth strown through the drift of it, like the shimmer of scrags of shell in the wrack of a tide.

Who acts: shed teeth, scrags · What happens: not be, heap, shed, strown, shimmer, drift · To what, where: shed teeth, drift

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 (shed teeth, scrags), 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	For	for	ADP	_	6 ground	case
2	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	6 ground	expl
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 ground	cop
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 ground	advmod
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	6 ground	det
6	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 ground	punct
8	—	-	PUNCT	_	11 him	punct
9	neither	neither	ADV	_	11 him	advmod
10	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	11 him	case
11	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 ground	nmod
12	nor	nor	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	14 him	cc
13	about	about	ADP	_	14 him	case
14	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 him	conj
15	nor	nor	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	17 him	cc
16	above	above	ADP	_	17 him	case
17	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 him	conj
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 him	punct
19	—	-	PUNCT	_	11 him	punct
20	but	but	CCONJ	_	21 a	cc
21	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 him	conj
22	heaping	heap	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	21 a	acl
23	only	only	ADV	_	25 monstrous	advmod
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 monstrous	punct
25	monstrous	monstrous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 heaping	xcomp
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	27 measureless	cc
27	measureless	measureless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	25 monstrous	conj
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 skulls	punct
29	of	of	ADP	_	30 skulls	case
30	skulls	skull	NOUN	Number=Plur	25 monstrous	obl
31	and	and	CCONJ	_	32 fragments	cc
32	fragments	fragment	NOUN	Number=Plur	30 skulls	conj
33	of	of	ADP	_	34 skulls	case
34	skulls	skull	NOUN	Number=Plur	32 fragments	nmod
35	and	and	CCONJ	_	36 dust	cc
36	dust	dust	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 skulls	conj
37	of	of	ADP	_	38 bone	case
38	bone	bone	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 dust	nmod
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	43 shimmer	punct
40	—	-	PUNCT	_	43 shimmer	punct
41	with	with	ADP	_	43 shimmer	case
42	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	43 shimmer	det
43	shimmer	shimmer	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 skulls	conj
44	of	of	ADP	_	46 teeth	case
45	shed	shed	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	46 teeth	amod
46	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	43 shimmer	nmod
47	strown	strown	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	46 teeth	acl
48	through	through	ADP	_	50 drift	case
49	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	50 drift	det
50	drift	drift	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 strown	obl
51	of	of	ADP	_	52 it	case
52	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	50 drift	nmod
53	,	,	PUNCT	_	56 shimmer	punct
54	like	like	ADP	_	56 shimmer	case
55	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	56 shimmer	det
56	shimmer	shimmer	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 shimmer	conj
57	of	of	ADP	_	58 scrags	case
58	scrags	scrag	NOUN	Number=Plur	56 shimmer	nmod
59	of	of	ADP	_	60 shell	case
60	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	58 scrags	nmod
61	in	in	ADP	_	63 wrack	case
62	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	63 wrack	det
63	wrack	wrack	NOUN	Number=Sing	60 shell	nmod
64	of	of	ADP	_	66 tide	case
65	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	66 tide	det
66	tide	tide	NOUN	Number=Sing	63 wrack	nmod
67	.	.	PUNCT	_	11 him	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	not is	past			there	for any ground; beneath flame	tree rules
2	heap	gerund				monstrous property	vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent
3	shed	participle					vn substance_emission-43.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Source
4	strown	participle		shed teeth not said here	the drift of drift		tree rules
5	shimmer		shed teeth				nom shimmer «event intransitive»: of=agent
6	drift			drift			nom drift «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient
7	shimmer		scrags of shell in the wrack of a tide				nom shimmer «event 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/pg8128/1/29/

🌲 In Ghostly Japan, Opening, sentence 29

The tree

Pragmatics

In Ghostly Japan, Opening, sentence 29