In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu[1], sentence 110
Each, with its quiver of color, seemed a life afraid,—trembling on the blind current that was bearing it into the outer blackness….
Who acts: quiver, blind current, color · What happens: seem, tremble, bear, quiver · To what, where: life, blind current
This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Story of a Tengu[1]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (quiver, blind current, color), 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 | Each | each | DET | PronType=Tot | 5 quiver | det |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 quiver | punct |
| 3 | with | with | ADP | _ | 5 quiver | case |
| 4 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 5 quiver | nmod:poss |
| 5 | quiver | quiver | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 seemed | nsubj |
| 6 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 color | case |
| 7 | color | color | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 quiver | nmod |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 quiver | punct |
| 9 | seemed | seem | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 10 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 11 life | det |
| 11 | life | life | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 seemed | obj |
| 12 | afraid | afraid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 seemed | xcomp |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 trembling | punct |
| 14 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 15 trembling | punct |
| 15 | trembling | tremble | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 9 seemed | advcl |
| 16 | on | on | ADP | _ | 19 current | case |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 current | det |
| 18 | blind | blind | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 current | amod |
| 19 | current | current | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 trembling | obl |
| 20 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 22 bearing | nsubj |
| 21 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 bearing | aux |
| 22 | bearing | bear | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 19 current | acl:relcl |
| 23 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 bearing | obj |
| 24 | into | into | ADP | _ | 27 blackness | case |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 blackness | det |
| 26 | outer | outer | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 blackness | amod |
| 27 | blackness | blackness | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 trembling | obl |
| 28 | …. | .. | PUNCT | _ | 9 seemed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | seem | past | impulse's quiver of color | a life | afraid property | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme life=Attribute | |||
| 2 | tremble | gerund | impulse's quiver of color not said here | the blind current | into the outer blackness | vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on current=Location | |||
| 3 | bear | past · progressive | the blind current | life | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient | ||||
| 4 | quiver | color | nom quiver «feeling 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/pg8128/27/110/