---
title: In order to be able to think of the sea as a mere body of water, I m… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: In order to be able to think of the sea as a mere body of water, I must be upon some height from whence its heaviest billowing appears but a lazy creeping of tiny ripples. Who acts: I, heaviest, tiny ripples. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Story of a Tengu[1], with its dependenc
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu\[1\], sentence 162

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In order to be able to think of the sea as a mere body of water, I must be upon some height from whence its heaviest billowing appears but a lazy creeping of tiny ripples.

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**Who acts:** I, heaviest, tiny ripples · **What happens:** be, think, billow, appear, creep

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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, heaviest, tiny ripples), 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:pg8128:27:163
# text = In order to be able to think of the sea as a mere body of water, I must be upon some height from whence its heaviest billowing appears but a lazy creeping of tiny ripples.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	5	case	_	_
2	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	fixed	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
5	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	mere	mere	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
19	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
21	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
23	height	height	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
24	from	from	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	whence	whence	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	23	nmod	_	_
26	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
27	heaviest	heavy	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	29	nsubj	_	_
28	billowing	billow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	_
29	appears	appear	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl:relcl	_	_
30	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	lazy	lazy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	creeping	creeping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	ripples	ripple	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | of the sea; as a mere body of water | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | must | I |  |  |  |  | upon some height | tree rules |
| 4 | **billow** | gerund | heaviest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **appear** | present | heaviest |  |  |  |  | sea *nmod:poss*; a lazy creeping of tiny ripples *conj* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **creep** |  | tiny ripples |  |  |  |  |  | nom creeping «act intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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