---
title: I must confess that when I am either in the sea, or upon it, I canno… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: I must confess that when I am either in the sea, or upon it, I cannot fully persuade myself that it is not alive,—a conscious and a hostile power. Who acts: I, sea. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Story of a Tengu[1], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu\[1\], sentence 160

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I must confess that when I am either in the sea, or upon it, I cannot fully persuade myself that it is not alive,—a conscious and a hostile power.

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**Who acts:** I, sea · **What happens:** confess, be, not persuade, not be · **To what, where:** sea, myself

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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, sea), 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:pg8128:27:161
# text = I must confess that when I am either in the sea, or upon it, I cannot fully persuade myself that it is not alive,—a conscious and a hostile power.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	confess	confess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
7	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
8	either	either	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc:preconj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
13	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
14	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
18	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
20	fully	fully	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	persuade	persuade	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
22	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obj	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	conscious	conscious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	hostile	hostile	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **confess** | must | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | I |  |  | the sea |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **persuade** | can | I | myself |  |  |  | upon sea; fully *property* | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent myself=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **is** | present | sea |  |  |  |  | alive *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  | sea *not said here* |  |  |  |  | a hostile power *conj* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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