--- title: Perhaps the spirit of this proverb may be better explained by the he… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics description: Perhaps the spirit of this proverb may be better explained by the help of another: _Nigéta sakana ni chisai wa nai; shinda kodomo ni warui ko wa nai_—“Fish that escaped was never small; child that died was never bad.” Who acts: spirit, Fish, child, small. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/25/211/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [In Ghostly Japan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/) / [Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/25/) / 211 # In Ghostly Japan, Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 2, sentence 211 Perhaps the spirit of this proverb may be better explained by the help of another: \_Nigéta sakana ni chisai wa nai; shinda kodomo ni warui ko wa nai\_—“Fish that escaped was never small; child that died was never bad.” **Who acts:** spirit, Fish, child, small · **What happens:** be, explain, escape, not be, die · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (spirit, Fish, child, small), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg8128:25:211 # text = Perhaps the spirit of this proverb may be better explained by the help of another: _Nigéta sakana ni chisai wa nai; shinda kodomo ni warui ko wa nai_—“Fish that escaped was never small; child that died was never bad.” 1 Perhaps perhaps ADV RB _ 3 advmod _ _ 2 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 spirit spirit NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 nsubj _ _ 4 of of ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 5 this this DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 6 det _ _ 6 proverb proverb NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 nmod _ _ 7 may may AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 9 aux _ _ 8 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 9 cop _ _ 9 better good ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 0 root _ _ 10 explained explain VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 9 advcl _ _ 11 by by ADP IN _ 13 case _ _ 12 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 13 det _ _ 13 help help NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obl _ _ 14 of of ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 15 another another DET DT PronType=Ind 13 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 16 : : PUNCT : _ 18 punct _ _ 17 _ _ PUNCT NFP _ 18 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 18 Nigéta Nigéta PROPN NNP Number=Sing 9 obl _ _ 19 sakana sakana X FW Foreign=Yes 18 dep _ _ 20 ni ni X FW Foreign=Yes 18 appos _ _ 21 chisai chisai X FW Foreign=Yes 20 flat _ _ 22 wa wa X FW Foreign=Yes 21 flat:foreign _ _ 23 nai nai X FW Foreign=Yes 21 flat:foreign _ SpaceAfter=No 24 ; ; PUNCT : _ 27 punct _ _ 25 shinda shinda ADV RB _ 27 advmod _ _ 26 kodomo kodomo NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 compound _ _ 27 ni no NOUN NNS Number=Plur 9 appos _ _ 28 warui warui X FW _ 29 compound _ _ 29 ko ko NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 conj _ _ 30 wa wa X FW Foreign=Yes 29 dep _ _ 31 nai nai X FW Foreign=Yes 30 flat:foreign _ SpaceAfter=No 32 _ _ PUNCT NFP _ 27 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 33 — - PUNCT : _ 40 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 34 “ " PUNCT `` _ 40 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 35 Fish fish NOUN NNS Number=Plur 40 nsubj _ _ 36 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 37 nsubj _ _ 37 escaped escape VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 35 acl:relcl _ _ 38 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 40 cop _ _ 39 never never ADV RB PronType=Neg 40 advmod _ _ 40 small small ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 47 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 41 ; ; PUNCT : _ 42 punct _ _ 42 child child NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 conj _ _ 43 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 44 nsubj _ _ 44 died die VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 42 acl:relcl _ _ 45 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 47 cop _ _ 46 never never ADV RB PronType=Neg 47 advmod _ _ 47 bad bad ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 9 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 48 . . PUNCT . _ 9 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 49 ” " PUNCT '' _ 9 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | may | the spirit of this proverb | | | | | Nigéta *obl*; kodomo ni and warui ko *appos*; good *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **explain** *speech: assert* | participle | the spirit of this proverb *not said here* | | | | | by the help of another | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 3 | **escape** *in a quote* | past | Fish | | | | | | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | past | Fish | | | | | child *conj*; small *property* | tree rules | | 5 | **die** *in a quote* | past | child | | | | | | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | | 6 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | past | small and child | | | | | bad *property* | tree rules | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 210](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/25/210/) - next →: [sentence 212](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/25/212/) - ↑ back to [Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/25/)