---
title: I felt that it would be unkind to interfere with the little embarcat… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: I felt that it would be unkind to interfere with the little embarcations, or to divert them from their silent course: so I contented myself with keeping close to one of them, and studying its details. Who acts: I, it, last. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Story of a Tengu[1], wit
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Story of a Tengu\[1\], sentence 99

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I felt that it would be unkind to interfere with the little embarcations, or to divert them from their silent course: so I contented myself with keeping close to one of them, and studying its details.

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**Who acts:** I, it, last · **What happens:** feel, be, interfere, divert, content, keep · **To what, where:** embarcations, silent course, myself, one, details

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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, it, last), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg8128:27:100
# text = I felt that it would be unkind to interfere with the little embarcations, or to divert them from their silent course: so I contented myself with keeping close to one of them, and studying its details.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
7	unkind	unkind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	interfere	interfere	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	embarcations	embarcation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	divert	divert	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	contented	content	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
27	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	26	obj	_	_
28	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
29	keeping	keep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
30	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	32	advmod	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	obj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	studying	study	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	conj	_	_
38	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	details	detail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feel** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | would | it |  |  |  |  | unkind *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **interfere** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | with the little embarcations | tree rules |
| 4 | **divert** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | embarcations *= embarcation* |  | embarcations's silent course |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus they=Experiencer |
| 5 | **content** | past | I | myself |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus myself=Experiencer |
| 6 | **keep** | gerund | I *not said here* | one of embarcations |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme |
| 7 | **study** | gerund | I *not said here* | last's details |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent detail=Topic |
| 8 | **detail** |  | last |  |  |  |  |  | nom detail «cognition transitive»: 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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