---
title: I feel anxious only about my future birth; but as that is a matter i… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: I feel anxious only about my future birth; but as that is a matter in which no one can help me, it were useless to ask about it. Who acts: I, that, one, it. 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 22

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I feel anxious only about my future birth; but as that is a matter in which no one can help me, it were useless to ask about it.

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**Who acts:** I, that, one, it · **What happens:** feel, be, help, ask · **To what, where:** me, matter

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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, that, one, it), 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:pg8128:27:22
# text = I feel anxious only about my future birth; but as that is a matter in which no one can help me, it were useless to ask about it.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	feel	feel	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	anxious	anxious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
5	about	about	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	future	future	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	obl	_	_
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
19	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
22	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
26	useless	useless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	conj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	csubj	_	_
29	about	about	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feel** | present | I |  |  |  |  | about my future birth; anxious *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | present | that |  |  |  |  | as a matter | tree rules |
| 3 | **help** | can | no one |  | me | a matter |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | useless *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | about friend | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V PP.topic whether S»: agent=Agent about it=Topic |

<!-- .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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