In Ghostly Japan, Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 2, sentence 211
Perhaps the spirit of this proverb may be better explained by the help of another: _Nigéta sakana ni chisai wa nai; shinda kodomo ni warui ko wa nai_—“Fish that escaped was never small; child that died was never bad.”
Who acts: spirit, Fish, child, small · What happens: be, explain, escape, not be, die · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (spirit, Fish, child, small), 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 | Perhaps | perhaps | ADV | _ | 3 spirit | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 spirit | det |
| 3 | spirit | spirit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 better | nsubj |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 6 proverb | case |
| 5 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 6 proverb | det |
| 6 | proverb | proverb | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 spirit | nmod |
| 7 | may | may | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 9 better | aux |
| 8 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 9 better | cop |
| 9 | better | good | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | root | root |
| 10 | explained | explain | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 9 better | advcl |
| 11 | by | by | ADP | _ | 13 help | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 help | det |
| 13 | help | help | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 explained | obl |
| 14 | of | of | ADP | _ | 15 another | case |
| 15 | another | another | DET | PronType=Ind | 13 help | nmod |
| 16 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 18 Nigéta | punct |
| 17 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 18 Nigéta | punct |
| 18 | Nigéta | Nigéta | PROPN | Number=Sing | 9 better | obl |
| 19 | sakana | sakana | X | Foreign=Yes | 18 Nigéta | dep |
| 20 | ni | ni | X | Foreign=Yes | 18 Nigéta | appos |
| 21 | chisai | chisai | X | Foreign=Yes | 20 ni | flat |
| 22 | wa | wa | X | Foreign=Yes | 21 chisai | flat:foreign |
| 23 | nai | nai | X | Foreign=Yes | 21 chisai | flat:foreign |
| 24 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 27 ni | punct |
| 25 | shinda | shinda | ADV | _ | 27 ni | advmod |
| 26 | kodomo | kodomo | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 ni | compound |
| 27 | ni | no | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 better | appos |
| 28 | warui | warui | X | _ | 29 ko | compound |
| 29 | ko | ko | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 ni | conj |
| 30 | wa | wa | X | Foreign=Yes | 29 ko | dep |
| 31 | nai | nai | X | Foreign=Yes | 30 wa | flat:foreign |
| 32 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 27 ni | punct |
| 33 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 40 small | punct |
| 34 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 40 small | punct |
| 35 | Fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Plur | 40 small | nsubj |
| 36 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 37 escaped | nsubj |
| 37 | escaped | escape | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 35 Fish | acl:relcl |
| 38 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 40 small | cop |
| 39 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 40 small | advmod |
| 40 | small | small | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 47 bad | nsubj |
| 41 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 42 child | punct |
| 42 | child | child | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 small | conj |
| 43 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 44 died | nsubj |
| 44 | died | die | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 42 child | acl:relcl |
| 45 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 47 bad | cop |
| 46 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 47 bad | advmod |
| 47 | bad | bad | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 better | parataxis |
| 48 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 better | punct |
| 49 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 better | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | may | the spirit of this proverb | Nigéta obl; kodomo ni and warui ko appos; good property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | explain speech: assert | participle | the spirit of this proverb not said here | by the help of another | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | escape in a quote | past | Fish | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | not is in a quote | past | Fish | child conj; small property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | die in a quote | past | child | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | |||||
| 6 | not is in a quote | past | small and child | bad property | tree rules |
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/pg8128/25/211/