---
title: Over the water I saw something like a long swarm of fire-flies,—the… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: Over the water I saw something like a long swarm of fire-flies,—the lanterns drifting out to sea in procession; but they were already too far to be distinguished except as points of colored light. Who acts: I, lanterns, lantern. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Story of a Tengu[1]
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu\[1\], sentence 91

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Over the water I saw something like a long swarm of fire-flies,—the lanterns drifting out to sea in procession; but they were already too far to be distinguished except as points of colored light.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, lanterns, lantern · **What happens:** see, drift out, be, distinguish, point · **To what, where:** something, water, procession, colored light

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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, lanterns, lantern), 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:pg8128:27:92
# text = Over the water I saw something like a long swarm of fire-flies,—the lanterns drifting out to sea in procession; but they were already too far to be distinguished except as points of colored light.
1	Over	over	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	5	obj	_	_
7	like	like	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	swarm	swarm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	flies	fly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	lanterns	lantern	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	_
19	drifting	drift	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	acl	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	procession	procession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	34	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
29	already	already	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
30	too	too	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	34	advmod	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
33	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	aux:pass	_	_
34	distinguished	distinguish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
35	except	except	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	as	as	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	points	point	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	colored	colored	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | I | something  the lanterns |  | the water |  | like a long swarm of fire flies | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer something=Stimulus |
| 2 | **drift out** | gerund | the lanterns *not said here* |  |  | procession |  | to sea | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V PP.source PP.trajectory PP.destination»: agent=Theme to sea=Source in procession=Trajectory |
| 3 | **is** | past | lantern |  |  |  |  | far *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **distinguish** | to-infinitive · passive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | except points of colored light | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V PP» |
| 5 | **point** |  |  | colored light |  |  |  |  | nom point «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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