---
title: How living seem the smoulderings and the flashings of the tide on ni… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: How living seem the smoulderings and the flashings of the tide on nights of phosphorescence!—how reptilian the subtle shifting of the tints of its chilly flame! Who acts: reptilian, tide. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Story of a Tengu[1], with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu\[1\], sentence 164

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How living seem the smoulderings and the flashings of the tide on nights of phosphorescence!—how reptilian the subtle shifting of the tints of its chilly flame!

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**Who acts:** reptilian, tide · **What happens:** live, seem, shifting, flash, flame · **To what, where:** smoulderings

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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 (reptilian, tide), 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:pg8128:27:165
# text = How living seem the smoulderings and the flashings of the tide on nights of phosphorescence!—how reptilian the subtle shifting of the tints of its chilly flame!
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	living	live	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	nsubj	_	_
3	seem	seem	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	smoulderings	smouldering	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	flashings	flashing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tide	tide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	nights	night	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	phosphorescence	phosphorescence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
19	reptilian	reptilian	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	subtle	subtle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	shifting	shifting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	tints	tint	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
28	chilly	chilly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	flame	flame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **seem** | present |  | the smoulderings and the flashings of the tide on nights of phosphorescence |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme smouldering=Attribute |
| 3 | **shifting** |  | reptilian |  |  |  |  | of the tints of reptilian's chilly flame | tree rules |
| 4 | **flash** |  | the tide on nights of phosphorescence |  |  |  |  |  | nom flashing «event intransitive»: of=agent |
| 5 | **flame** |  | reptilian |  |  |  |  |  | nom flame «process intransitive»: poss=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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