---
title: Perhaps the curious title of the narrative is best explained by the… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: Perhaps the curious title of the narrative is best explained by the Buddhist teaching that the dead have power to injure the living only in consequence of evil actions committed by their victims in some former life. Who acts: Buddhist teaching, dead. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hear
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 3, sentence 45

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Perhaps the curious title of the narrative is best explained by the Buddhist teaching that the dead have power to injure the living only in consequence of evil actions committed by their victims in some former life.

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**Who acts:** Buddhist teaching, dead · **What happens:** explain, have, injure, commit, title · **To what, where:** curious title, power, living, consequence, evil actions, former life

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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 (Buddhist teaching, dead), 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:pg8128:26:45
# text = Perhaps the curious title of the narrative is best explained by the Buddhist teaching that the dead have power to injure the living only in consequence of evil actions committed by their victims in some former life.
1	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	title	title	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	narrative	narrative	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
9	best	well	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	10	advmod	_	_
10	explained	explain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	Buddhist	buddhist	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	teaching	teaching	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	nsubj	_	_
18	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl	_	_
19	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	injure	injure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	living	living	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	only	only	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	consequence	consequence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	actions	action	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	_
30	committed	commit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	acl	_	_
31	by	by	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	victims	victim	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	37	det	_	_
36	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **explain** *speech: assert* | present · passive | the Buddhist teaching | the curious title of the narrative |  |  |  | well *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Topic |
| 2 | **have** | present | the dead | power |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent power=Patient |
| 3 | **injure** | to-infinitive | the dead *not said here* | the living |  | consequence of evil actions |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **commit** | participle |  | evil actions *not said here* |  | some former life |  | by actions's victims | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in life=Destination |
| 5 | **title** |  |  | the narrative |  |  |  |  | nom title «communication 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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