In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 7, sentence 8

Perhaps what I am writing will seem to you absurd; but you would not think it absurd if you once heard her howl.

Who acts: writing, you, uneasiness · What happens: be, seem, not think, hear, howl · To what, where: writing, you, howl

This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (writing, you, uneasiness), 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	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	_	5 writing	advmod
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	5 writing	nsubj
3	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	5 writing	nsubj
4	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 writing	cop
5	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 seem	nsubj
6	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 seem	aux
7	seem	seem	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	to	to	ADP	_	9 you	case
9	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	7 seem	obl
10	absurd	absurd	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 seem	xcomp
11	;	;	PUNCT	_	16 think	punct
12	but	but	CCONJ	_	16 think	cc
13	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	16 think	nsubj
14	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	16 think	aux
15	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	16 think	advmod
16	think	think	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 seem	conj
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 think	obj
18	absurd	absurd	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 think	xcomp
19	if	if	SCONJ	_	22 heard	mark
20	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	22 heard	nsubj
21	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	22 heard	advmod
22	heard	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 think	advcl
23	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	24 howl	nmod:poss
24	howl	howl	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 heard	obj
25	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 seem	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	is a	present		writing		what nsubj; I nsubj; perhaps property	tree rules
2	seem	future	writing		you	absurd property	vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme
3	not think speech: other	would	you	writing		absurd property	vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot it=Theme
4	hear a condition, not said to happen	past	you	uneasiness's howl		once property	vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer howl=Stimulus
5	howl		uneasiness				nom howl «communication intransitive»: 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/pg8128/9/8/

🌲 In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 7, sentence 8

The tree

Pragmatics

In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 7, sentence 8