---
title: Sometimes, just before breaking, a towering swell would crack all it… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: Sometimes, just before breaking, a towering swell would crack all its green length with a tinkle as of shivering glass; then would fall and flatten with a peal that shook the wall beneath me…. Who acts: breaking, peal. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Story of a Tengu[1], with its
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu\[1\], sentence 148

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Sometimes, just before breaking, a towering swell would crack all its green length with a tinkle as of shivering glass; then would fall and flatten with a peal that shook the wall beneath me….

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**Who acts:** breaking, peal · **What happens:** break, tower, crack, shiver, fall, flatten · **To what, where:** towering swell, green length, glass, wall

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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 (breaking, peal), 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:pg8128:27:149
# text = Sometimes, just before breaking, a towering swell would crack all its green length with a tinkle as of shivering glass; then would fall and flatten with a peal that shook the wall beneath me….
1	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	just	just	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	breaking	break	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	csubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	towering	tower	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	amod	_	_
9	swell	swell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	crack	crack	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
13	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	tinkle	tinkle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	fixed	_	_
21	shivering	shiver	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
22	glass	glass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
24	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	flatten	flatten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	peal	peal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
32	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj	_	_
33	shook	shake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	….	..	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break** | gerund |  | a towering swell |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer swell=Patient |
| 2 | **tower** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **crack** | would | breaking | wave's green length |  |  |  | with a tinkle | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent length=Patient with tinkle=Instrument |
| 4 | **shiver** | gerund | breaking *not said here* | glass |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **fall** | would | breaking *not said here* |  |  |  | then |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **flatten** | infinitive | breaking *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with a peal | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with peal=Instrument |
| 7 | **shake** | past | a peal | the wall |  |  |  | beneath me | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent wall=Theme beneath i=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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