---
title: “But most women,” I observed, “would like to be reborn as men; and t… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: “But most women,” I observed, “would like to be reborn as men; and the accomplishment of that wish would scarcely be in the nature of a penalty.” Who acts: most women, accomplishment. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 3, with
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 3, sentence 18

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“But most women,” I observed, “would like to be reborn as men; and the accomplishment of that wish would scarcely be in the nature of a penalty.”

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**Who acts:** most women, accomplishment · **What happens:** observe, like, be, accomplish · **To what, where:** nature, wish · **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: who acts (most women, accomplishment), 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:pg8128:26:18
# text = “But most women,” I observed, “would like to be reborn as men; and the accomplishment of that wish would scarcely be in the nature of a penalty.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
3	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	observed	observe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
15	reborn	reborn	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	accomplishment	accomplishment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	det	_	_
24	wish	wish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
26	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	cop	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	nature	nature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	penalty	penalty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **observe** | past | most women |  |  |  |  | I *nsubj* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **like** *in a quote* | would | most women *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **is** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | most women *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as men; reborn *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | would | the accomplishment of that wish |  |  | the nature |  | of a penalty; scarcely *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **accomplish** *in a quote* |  |  | that wish |  |  |  |  | nom accomplishment «act 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.

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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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