---
title: The true teaching is that the result of every selfish wish is in the… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: The true teaching is that the result of every selfish wish is in the nature of a penalty, and that what the wish creates must prove—to higher knowledge at least—the folly of wishing.” Who acts: true teaching, wish, folly. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Morning Awakening After a 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/26/11/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/pg8128/26/) / 11

# In Ghostly Japan, Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 3, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The true teaching is that the result of every selfish wish is in the nature of a penalty, and that what the wish creates must prove—to higher knowledge at least—the folly of wishing.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** true teaching, wish, folly · **What happens:** be, create, prove, wish, result · **To what, where:** nature, higher knowledge, selfish wish

<!-- .vabout -->
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: who acts (true teaching, wish, folly), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg8128:26:11
# text = The true teaching is that the result of every selfish wish is in the nature of a penalty, and that what the wish creates must prove—to higher knowledge at least—the folly of wishing.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	teaching	teaching	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	result	result	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	11	det	_	_
10	selfish	selfish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	wish	wish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	nature	nature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	penalty	penalty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	25	obj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	wish	wish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	creates	create	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	_
26	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	prove	prove	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
30	higher	high	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	31	amod	_	_
31	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	folly	folly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	appos	_	_
37	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
38	wishing	wish	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	36	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the true teaching |  |  | the nature |  | of a penalty; the result of every selfish wish *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **create** | present | the wish |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Result |
| 3 | **prove** | must |  | higher knowledge |  |  |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knowledge=Theme |
| 4 | **wish** | gerund | the folly *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 5 | **result** |  |  | every selfish wish |  |  |  |  | nom result «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/26/10/)
- next →: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/26/12/)
- ↑ back to [Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/26/)