---
title: And once the pilgrim-youth laid hand on a something smooth that was… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: And once the pilgrim-youth laid hand on a something smooth that was not stone,—and lifted it,—and dimly saw the cheekless gibe of death. Who acts: something smooth, death. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Opening, sentence 22

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And once the pilgrim-youth laid hand on a something smooth that was not stone,—and lifted it,—and dimly saw the cheekless gibe of death.

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**Who acts:** something smooth, death · **What happens:** not be, lift, see, gibe · **To what, where:** stone, cheekless gibe

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Opening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (something smooth, death), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg8128:1:22
# text = And once the pilgrim-youth laid hand on a something smooth that was not stone,—and lifted it,—and dimly saw the cheekless gibe of death.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
2	once	once	SCONJ	IN	_	8	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	pilgrim	pilgrim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
7	laid	laid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	12	compound	_	_
12	smooth	smooth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	dimly	dimly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	cheekless	cheekless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	gibe	gibe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | a something smooth | stone |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **lift** | past |  | stone |  |  |  | once youth laid hand on a something smooth | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past |  | the cheekless gibe of death |  |  |  | dimly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer gibe=Stimulus |
| 4 | **gibe** |  | death |  |  |  |  |  | nom gibe «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

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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.

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**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.

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