In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu[1], sentence 116

I reflected that were any evil to befall me out there in the night,—meddling, or seeming to meddle, with the lights of the Dead,—I should myself furnish the subject of some future weird legend….

Who acts: I · What happens: reflect, be, befall out, meddle, seem, furnish · To what, where: evil, me, lights, subject, Dead

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), 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	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	2 reflected	nsubj
2	reflected	reflect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 evil	mark
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 evil	cop
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	6 evil	det
6	evil	evil	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reflected	ccomp
7	to	to	PART	_	8 befall	mark
8	befall	befall	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 reflected	advcl
9	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	8 befall	obj
10	out	out	ADP	_	8 befall	compound:prt
11	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	8 befall	advmod
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 night	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 night	det
14	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 befall	obl
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 meddling	punct
16	—	-	PUNCT	_	17 meddling	punct
17	meddling	meddle	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 reflected	advcl
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 seeming	punct
19	or	or	CCONJ	_	20 seeming	cc
20	seeming	seem	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	17 meddling	conj
21	to	to	PART	_	22 meddle	mark
22	meddle	meddle	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	20 seeming	xcomp
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 lights	punct
24	with	with	ADP	_	26 lights	case
25	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 lights	det
26	lights	light	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 meddle	obj
27	of	of	ADP	_	29 Dead	case
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 Dead	det
29	Dead	Dead	PROPN	Number=Sing	26 lights	nmod
30	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 meddling	punct
31	—	-	PUNCT	_	35 furnish	punct
32	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	35 furnish	nsubj
33	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	35 furnish	aux
34	myself	myself	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	35 furnish	nsubj
35	furnish	furnish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 reflected	conj
36	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	37 subject	det
37	subject	subject	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 furnish	obj
38	of	of	ADP	_	42 legend	case
39	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	42 legend	nsubj
40	future	future	ADJ	Degree=Pos	42 legend	amod
41	weird	weird	ADJ	Degree=Pos	42 legend	amod
42	legend	legend	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 subject	nmod
43	….	..	PUNCT	_	2 reflected	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reflect	past	I					vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past	I not said here	any evil				tree rules
3	befall out	to-infinitive	I not said here	me	there	night		tree rules
4	meddle	gerund	I not said here					tree rules
5	seem	gerund	I not said here					vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute
6	meddle	to-infinitive	I not said here	the lights of the Dead				tree rules
7	furnish	should	I	the subject of future weird legend			myself nsubj	vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient
8	light			the Dead				nom light «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient

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/pg8128/27/116/

🌲 In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu[1], sentence 116

The tree

Pragmatics

In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu[1], sentence 116