---
title: For there was not any ground,—neither beneath him nor about him nor… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: For there was not any ground,—neither beneath him nor about him nor above him,—but a heaping only, monstrous and measureless, of skulls and fragments of skulls and dust of bone,—with a shimmer of shed teeth strown through the drift of it, like the shimmer of scrags of shell in the wrack of a tide. W
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Opening, sentence 29

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For there was not any ground,—neither beneath him nor about him nor above him,—but a heaping only, monstrous and measureless, of skulls and fragments of skulls and dust of bone,—with a shimmer of shed teeth strown through the drift of it, like the shimmer of scrags of shell in the wrack of a tide.

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**Who acts:** shed teeth, scrags · **What happens:** not be, heap, shed, strown, shimmer, drift · **To what, where:** shed teeth, drift

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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 (shed teeth, scrags), 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:pg8128:1:29
# text = For there was not any ground,—neither beneath him nor about him nor above him,—but a heaping only, monstrous and measureless, of skulls and fragments of skulls and dust of bone,—with a shimmer of shed teeth strown through the drift of it, like the shimmer of scrags of shell in the wrack of a tide.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
6	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
10	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nmod	_	_
12	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	14	cc	_	_
13	about	about	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	conj	_	_
15	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	17	cc	_	_
16	above	above	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	conj	_	_
22	heaping	heap	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	acl	_	_
23	only	only	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	monstrous	monstrous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	measureless	measureless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	skulls	skull	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	fragments	fragment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	conj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	skulls	skull	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nmod	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	bone	bone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	43	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	with	with	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	shimmer	shimmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	_
44	of	of	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	shed	shed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	46	amod	_	_
46	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	nmod	_	_
47	strown	strown	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	46	acl	_	_
48	through	through	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	drift	drift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
51	of	of	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
52	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	56	punct	_	_
54	like	like	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	shimmer	shimmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	conj	_	_
57	of	of	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
58	scrags	scrag	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	56	nmod	_	_
59	of	of	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
60	shell	shell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	nmod	_	_
61	in	in	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
62	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	63	det	_	_
63	wrack	wrack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	nmod	_	_
64	of	of	ADP	IN	_	66	case	_	_
65	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	66	det	_	_
66	tide	tide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	63	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
67	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past |  |  |  | there |  | for any ground; beneath flame | tree rules |
| 2 | **heap** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | monstrous *property* | vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **shed** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Source |
| 4 | **strown** | participle |  | shed teeth *not said here* |  | the drift of drift |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **shimmer** |  | shed teeth |  |  |  |  |  | nom shimmer «event intransitive»: of=agent |
| 6 | **drift** |  |  | drift |  |  |  |  | nom drift «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient |
| 7 | **shimmer** |  | scrags of shell in the wrack of a tide |  |  |  |  |  | nom shimmer «event 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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