---
title: “Oh, the, poor creature!” compassionately exclaimed the priest;—“why… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: “Oh, the, poor creature!” compassionately exclaimed the priest;—“why do you torment it so, children?” Who acts: priest, you. 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 9

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“Oh, the, poor creature!” compassionately exclaimed the priest;—“why do you torment it so, children?”

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**Who acts:** priest, you · **What happens:** exclaim, torment · **To what, where:** poor creature, creature · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (priest, you), 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:pg8128:27:9
# text = “Oh, the, poor creature!” compassionately exclaimed the priest;—“why do you torment it so, children?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	compassionately	compassionately	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	exclaimed	exclaim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	priest	priest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
18	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	torment	torment	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	parataxis	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **exclaim** *speech: express* | past | the priest | poor creature |  |  |  | compassionately *property* | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **torment** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you | creature |  |  |  | children *obl* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus it=Experiencer |

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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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