---
title: _This light of the moon that plays on the water I pour for the dead,… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: _This light of the moon that plays on the water I pour for the dead, Differs nothing at all from the moonlight of other years. Who acts: moon, I, light. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, In a Cemetery At Night, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, In a Cemetery At Night, sentence 1

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\_This light of the moon that plays on the water I pour for the dead, Differs nothing at all from the moonlight of other years.

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**Who acts:** moon, I, light · **What happens:** play, pour, differ, light · **To what, where:** water, nothing, all, moon

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, In a Cemetery At Night. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (moon, I, light), 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:pg8128:14:1
# text = _This light of the moon that plays on the water I pour for the dead, Differs nothing at all from the moonlight of other years.
1	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
8	plays	play	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	pour	pour	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
18	Differs	differ	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	18	obj	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	nmod	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	moonlight	moonlight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | present | the moon |  |  | the water |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **pour** | present | I | the water *not said here* |  |  |  | for the dead | vn preparing-26.3-2 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent water=Patient for dead=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **differ** | present | this light of the moon | nothing |  | all |  | from the moonlight of other years | tree rules |
| 4 | **light** |  |  | the moon |  |  |  |  | nom light «phenomenon 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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