---
title: _(3)I whispered a prayer at the grave: a butterfly rose and fluttere… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: _(3)I whispered a prayer at the grave: a butterfly rose and fluttered— Thy spirit, perhaps, dear friend!… Who acts: _. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Fancies of Another Faith, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Fancies of Another Faith, sentence 3

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\_(3)I whispered a prayer at the grave: a butterfly rose and fluttered— Thy spirit, perhaps, dear friend!…

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**Who acts:** \_ · **What happens:** whisper, flutter · **To what, where:** prayer, grave, spirit

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Fancies of Another Faith. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (\_), 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:pg8128:13:5
# text = _(3)I whispered a prayer at the grave: a butterfly rose and fluttered— Thy spirit, perhaps, dear friend!…
1	_	_	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	3	3	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	1	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	prayer	prayer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	butterfly	butterfly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	rose	rose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	fluttered	flutter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
19	Thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	…	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past | \_ | a prayer |  | the grave |  | a butterfly rose *obl*; I *nsubj* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prayer=Topic |
| 2 | **flutter** | past | \_ *not said here* | Thy spirit |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location spirit=Theme |

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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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