In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu[1], sentence 99
I felt that it would be unkind to interfere with the little embarcations, or to divert them from their silent course: so I contented myself with keeping close to one of them, and studying its details.
Who acts: I, it, last · What happens: feel, be, interfere, divert, content, keep · To what, where: embarcations, silent course, myself, one, details
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, it, last), 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 felt | nsubj |
| 2 | felt | feel | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 7 unkind | mark |
| 4 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 unkind | nsubj |
| 5 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 7 unkind | aux |
| 6 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 7 unkind | cop |
| 7 | unkind | unkind | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 felt | advcl |
| 8 | to | to | PART | _ | 9 interfere | mark |
| 9 | interfere | interfere | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 unkind | xcomp |
| 10 | with | with | ADP | _ | 13 embarcations | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 embarcations | det |
| 12 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 embarcations | amod |
| 13 | embarcations | embarcation | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 interfere | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 divert | punct |
| 15 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 17 divert | cc |
| 16 | to | to | PART | _ | 17 divert | mark |
| 17 | divert | divert | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 2 felt | conj |
| 18 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 divert | obj |
| 19 | from | from | ADP | _ | 22 course | case |
| 20 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 course | nmod:poss |
| 21 | silent | silent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 course | amod |
| 22 | course | course | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 divert | obl |
| 23 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 26 contented | punct |
| 24 | so | so | ADV | _ | 26 contented | advmod |
| 25 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 26 contented | nsubj |
| 26 | contented | content | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 felt | conj |
| 27 | myself | myself | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 26 contented | obj |
| 28 | with | with | SCONJ | _ | 29 keeping | mark |
| 29 | keeping | keep | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 26 contented | advcl |
| 30 | close | close | ADV | Degree=Pos | 32 one | advmod |
| 31 | to | to | ADP | _ | 32 one | case |
| 32 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 29 keeping | obj |
| 33 | of | of | ADP | _ | 34 them | case |
| 34 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 one | nmod |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 studying | punct |
| 36 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 37 studying | cc |
| 37 | studying | study | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 29 keeping | conj |
| 38 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 39 details | nmod:poss |
| 39 | details | detail | NOUN | Number=Plur | 37 studying | obj |
| 40 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 felt | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | feel | past | I | vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | |||||
| 2 | is | would | it | unkind property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | interfere | to-infinitive | with the little embarcations | tree rules | |||||
| 4 | divert | to-infinitive | I not said here | embarcations = embarcation | embarcations's silent course | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus they=Experiencer | |||
| 5 | content | past | I | myself | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus myself=Experiencer | ||||
| 6 | keep | gerund | I not said here | one of embarcations | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme | ||||
| 7 | study | gerund | I not said here | last's details | vn learn-14-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent detail=Topic | ||||
| 8 | detail | last | nom detail «cognition transitive»: poss=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/pg8128/27/99/