---
title: But—strange to say!—this seemingly easy thing could not be done. — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: But—strange to say!—this seemingly easy thing could not be done. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 3, sentence 101

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But—strange to say!—this seemingly easy thing could not be done.

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**What happens:** say, not do · **To what, where:** easy thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg8128:26:101
# text = But—strange to say!—this seemingly easy thing could not be done.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
9	seemingly	seemingly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **do** | could · passive |  | this easy thing |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |

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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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