---
title: I reflected that were any evil to befall me out there in the night,—… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: I reflected that were any evil to befall me out there in the night,—meddling, or seeming to meddle, with the lights of the Dead,—I should myself furnish the subject of some future weird legend…. Who acts: I. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Story of a Tengu[1], with its dependency
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu\[1\], sentence 116

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I reflected that were any evil to befall me out there in the night,—meddling, or seeming to meddle, with the lights of the Dead,—I should myself furnish the subject of some future weird legend….

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** reflect, be, befall out, meddle, seem, furnish · **To what, where:** evil, me, lights, subject, Dead

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Story of a Tengu\[1\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg8128:27:117
# text = I reflected that were any evil to befall me out there in the night,—meddling, or seeming to meddle, with the lights of the Dead,—I should myself furnish the subject of some future weird legend….
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	reflected	reflect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
6	evil	evil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	befall	befall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
9	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	out	out	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
11	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	meddling	meddle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	seeming	seem	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	meddle	meddle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	lights	light	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	Dead	Dead	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
33	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
34	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	35	nsubj	_	_
35	furnish	furnish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	subject	subject	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
39	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	42	nsubj	_	_
40	future	future	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
41	weird	weird	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	legend	legend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	….	..	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reflect** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | I *not said here* | any evil |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **befall out** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | me |  | there | night |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **meddle** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **seem** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 6 | **meddle** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | the lights of the Dead |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **furnish** | should | I | the subject of future weird legend |  |  |  | myself *nsubj* | vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient |
| 8 | **light** |  |  | the Dead |  |  |  |  | nom light «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.

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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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