In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu[1], sentence 63

Between sea-wall and sea there is no sand,—only a grey slope of stones, chiefly boulders; and these roll with the surf so that it is ugly work trying to pass the breakers on a rough day.

Who acts: sand, these, ugly work · What happens: be, roll, try, pass · To what, where: sea wall, ugly work, breakers

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 (sand, these, ugly work), 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	Between	between	ADP	_	4 wall	case
2	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 wall	compound
3	-	-	PUNCT	_	2 sea	punct
4	wall	wall	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 is	obl
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 sea	cc
6	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 wall	conj
7	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	8 is	expl
8	is	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	10 sand	det
10	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 is	nsubj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 is	punct
12	—	-	PUNCT	_	16 slope	punct
13	only	only	ADV	_	16 slope	advmod
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 slope	det
15	grey	grey	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 slope	amod
16	slope	slope	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 is	conj
17	of	of	ADP	_	18 stones	case
18	stones	stone	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 slope	nmod
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 boulders	punct
20	chiefly	chiefly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 boulders	amod
21	boulders	boulder	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 stones	conj
22	;	;	PUNCT	_	25 roll	punct
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	25 roll	cc
24	these	this	PRON	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	25 roll	nsubj
25	roll	roll	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 is	parataxis
26	with	with	ADP	_	28 surf	case
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 surf	det
28	surf	surf	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 roll	obl
29	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	34 work	mark
30	that	that	SCONJ	_	29 so	fixed
31	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	34 work	nsubj
32	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	34 work	cop
33	ugly	ugly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	34 work	amod
34	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 roll	obl
35	trying	try	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	34 work	acl
36	to	to	PART	_	37 pass	mark
37	pass	pass	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	35 trying	xcomp
38	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	39 breakers	det
39	breakers	breaker	NOUN	Number=Plur	37 pass	obj
40	on	on	ADP	_	43 day	case
41	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	43 day	det
42	rough	rough	ADJ	Degree=Pos	43 day	amod
43	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 pass	obl
44	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 is	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be	present	no sand		sea wall and sea; there		a grey slope of stones and chiefly boulders conj	vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme between wall=Location
2	roll	present	these				with the surf	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with surf=Theme
3	is a	present	sand	ugly work				tree rules
4	try	gerund	ugly work not said here					vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
5	pass not said to happen	to-infinitive	ugly work not said here	the breakers		day		vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme breaker=Trajectory

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/pg8128/27/63/

🌲 In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu[1], sentence 63

The tree

Pragmatics

In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu[1], sentence 63