In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu[1], sentence 113

Even in the moment of this musing I began to doubt whether I was really alone,—to ask myself whether there might not be something more than a mere shuddering of light in the thing that rocked beside me: some presence that haunted the dying flame, and was watching the watcher.

Who acts: I, thing, presence · What happens: begin, doubt, be, ask, not be, rock · To what, where: musing, myself, something, dying flame, watcher

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 (I, thing, presence), 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	Even	even	ADV	_	4 moment	advmod
2	in	in	ADP	_	4 moment	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 moment	det
4	moment	moment	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 musing	case
6	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	7 musing	det
7	musing	musing	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 moment	nmod
8	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	9 began	nsubj
9	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 musing	acl:relcl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 doubt	mark
11	doubt	doubt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 began	xcomp
12	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	16 alone	mark
13	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	16 alone	nsubj
14	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 alone	cop
15	really	really	ADV	_	16 alone	advmod
16	alone	alone	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 doubt	ccomp
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 moment	punct
18	—	-	PUNCT	_	20 ask	punct
19	to	to	PART	_	20 ask	mark
20	ask	ask	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	4 moment	parataxis
21	myself	myself	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	20 ask	obj
22	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	23 there	mark
23	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	20 ask	ccomp
24	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	27 something	aux
25	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	27 something	advmod
26	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	27 something	cop
27	something	something	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	23 there	conj
28	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	27 something	amod
29	than	than	ADP	_	32 shuddering	case
30	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	32 shuddering	det
31	mere	mere	ADJ	Degree=Pos	32 shuddering	amod
32	shuddering	shuddering	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 more	obl
33	of	of	ADP	_	34 light	case
34	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 shuddering	nmod
35	in	in	ADP	_	37 thing	case
36	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	37 thing	det
37	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 shuddering	nmod
38	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	39 rocked	nsubj
39	rocked	rock	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	37 thing	acl:relcl
40	beside	beside	ADP	_	41 me	case
41	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	39 rocked	obl
42	:	:	PUNCT	_	44 presence	punct
43	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	44 presence	det
44	presence	presence	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 something	nmod
45	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	46 haunted	nsubj
46	haunted	haunt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	44 presence	acl:relcl
47	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	49 flame	det
48	dying	die	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	49 flame	amod
49	flame	flame	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 haunted	obj
50	,	,	PUNCT	_	53 watching	punct
51	and	and	CCONJ	_	53 watching	cc
52	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	53 watching	aux
53	watching	watch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	46 haunted	advcl
54	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	55 watcher	det
55	watcher	watcher	NOUN	Number=Sing	53 watching	obj
56	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 moment	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	begin	past	I	this musing not said here		tree rules
2	doubt	to-infinitive	I not said here			vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	is	past	I		alone property	tree rules
4	ask speech: ask	to-infinitive		myself		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent myself=Recipient
5	not is a	might		something	some presence nmod	tree rules
6	rock	past	the thing		beside me	vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme beside i=Location
7	haunt	past	some presence	the dying flame		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus flame=Experiencer
8	die	gerund				vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
9	watch	past · progressive	some presence not said here	the watcher		vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent watcher=Theme

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/pg8128/27/113/

🌲 In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu[1], sentence 113

The tree

Pragmatics

In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu[1], sentence 113