---
title: There was in that place no sign of life,—neither token of water, nor… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: There was in that place no sign of life,—neither token of water, nor trace of plant, nor shadow of flying bird,—nothing but desolation rising to desolation. 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 9

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There was in that place no sign of life,—neither token of water, nor trace of plant, nor shadow of flying bird,—nothing but desolation rising to desolation.

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**What happens:** be, fly, rise, sign, shadow · **To what, where:** trace, place, desolation, life, flying bird

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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: 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:pg8128:1:9
# text = There was in that place no sign of life,—neither token of water, nor trace of plant, nor shadow of flying bird,—nothing but desolation rising to desolation.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	7	det	_	_
7	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	neither	neither	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	13	det	_	_
13	token	token	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	18	cc	_	_
18	trace	trace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	plant	plant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	23	cc	_	_
23	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	amod	_	_
26	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	23	conj	_	_
30	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	desolation	desolation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	_
32	rising	rise	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	acl	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	desolation	desolation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past |  | trace of plant |  | that place; there |  | shadow of flying bird  nothing  desolation *parataxis* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in place=Location |
| 2 | **fly** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **rise** | gerund |  |  |  | desolation |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to desolation=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **sign** |  |  | life |  |  |  |  | nom sign «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 5 | **shadow** |  |  | flying bird |  |  |  |  | nom shadow «state transitive»: of=patient |

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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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