---
title: _Mad waves devour The rocks: I ask myself in the darkness, “Have I b… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: _Mad waves devour The rocks: I ask myself in the darkness, “Have I become a god?” Who acts: Mad waves, I. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Shintō Revery, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Shintō Revery, sentence 1

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\_Mad waves devour The rocks: I ask myself in the darkness, “Have I become a god?”

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**Who acts:** Mad waves, I · **What happens:** devour, ask, become · **To what, where:** rocks, myself, darkness, god · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Shintō Revery. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mad waves, I), 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:pg8128:23:1
# text = _Mad waves devour The rocks: I ask myself in the darkness, “Have I become a god?”
1	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Mad	mad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	devour	devour	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
10	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	9	iobj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	Have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	become	become	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	god	god	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **devour** | infinitive | Mad waves | the rocks |  |  |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rock=Patient |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | I |  | myself | the darkness |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent myself=Recipient |
| 3 | **become** *in a quote* | present | I | a god |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=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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