---
title: “A man or a woman is scarcely more than half-a-being,—because in our… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: “A man or a woman is scarcely more than half-a-being,—because in our present imperfect state either sex can be evolved only at the cost of the other. Who acts: man, half. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 3, with its dependen
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 3, sentence 31

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“A man or a woman is scarcely more than half-a-being,—because in our present imperfect state either sex can be evolved only at the cost of the other.

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**Who acts:** man, half · **What happens:** be, evolve · **To what, where:** present imperfect state

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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 (man, half), 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:pg8128:26:31
# text = “A man or a woman is scarcely more than half-a-being,—because in our present imperfect state either sex can be evolved only at the cost of the other.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
10	than	than	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
21	present	present	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	imperfect	imperfect	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	either	either	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc:preconj	_	_
25	sex	sex	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
26	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	evolved	evolve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl:relcl	_	_
29	only	only	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	cost	cost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | a man or a woman |  |  |  |  | than half; more, scarcely *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  | our present imperfect state |  | sex *nmod*; our *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 3 | **evolve** *in a quote* | can · passive | half *not said here* | our present imperfect state |  |  |  | the cost of the other *obj* | tree rules |

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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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