---
title: The lady who preferred death to loss of honor, composed a poem befor… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: The lady who preferred death to loss of honor, composed a poem before piercing her throat The samurai sentenced to die by his own hand, wrote a poem before performing _hara-kiri_. Who acts: lady. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 8, with its dependency 
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 8, sentence 13

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The lady who preferred death to loss of honor, composed a poem before piercing her throat The samurai sentenced to die by his own hand, wrote a poem before performing \_hara-kiri\_.

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**Who acts:** lady · **What happens:** prefer, compose, pierce, sentence, die, write · **To what, where:** death, poem, throat, samurai, hara kiri

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lady), 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:pg8128:10:13
# text = The lady who preferred death to loss of honor, composed a poem before piercing her throat The samurai sentenced to die by his own hand, wrote a poem before performing _hara-kiri_.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
3	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	4	nsubj	_	_
4	preferred	prefer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	loss	loss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	honor	honor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
11	composed	compose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	poem	poem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
15	piercing	pierce	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	throat	throat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	samurai	samurai	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
20	sentenced	sentence	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	wrote	write	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	poem	poem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
32	performing	perform	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	_
33	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	hara	hara	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	kiri	kiri	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prefer** | past | the lady | death |  |  |  | to loss of honor | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer death=Stimulus |
| 2 | **compose** | past | the lady | a poem |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent poem=Result |
| 3 | **pierce** | gerund | the lady *not said here* | lady's throat |  |  |  | the samurai *obj* | tree rules |
| 4 | **sentence** | participle |  | the samurai *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **die** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | by misfortune's own hand | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 6 | **write** | past |  | a poem |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent poem=Theme |
| 7 | **perform** | gerund |  | hara kiri |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=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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