---
title: You may disbelieve in fortune-telling,—intellectually scorn it; but… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: You may disbelieve in fortune-telling,—intellectually scorn it; but something of inherited superstitious tendency lurks within most of us; and a few strange experiences can so appeal to that inheritance as to induce the most unreasoning hope or fear of the good or bad luck promised you by some divin
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 1, sentence 84

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You may disbelieve in fortune-telling,—intellectually scorn it; but something of inherited superstitious tendency lurks within most of us; and a few strange experiences can so appeal to that inheritance as to induce the most unreasoning hope or fear of the good or bad luck promised you by some diviner.

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**Who acts:** You, few strange experiences, fear · **What happens:** disbelieve, tell, scorn, inherit, appeal, induce · **To what, where:** fortune, unreasoning hope, you, good luck · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, few strange experiences, fear), 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:pg8128:3:86
# text = You may disbelieve in fortune-telling,—intellectually scorn it; but something of inherited superstitious tendency lurks within most of us; and a few strange experiences can so appeal to that inheritance as to induce the most unreasoning hope or fear of the good or bad luck promised you by some diviner.
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	disbelieve	disbelieve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	fortune	fortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	intellectually	intellectually	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	scorn	scorn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	inherited	inherit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	amod	_	_
18	superstitious	superstitious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	tendency	tendency	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	lurks	lurk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
21	within	within	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	20	nmod	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
29	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	experiences	experience	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
31	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	so	so	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	appeal	appeal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	36	det	_	_
36	inheritance	inheritance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
37	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	induce	induce	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	advcl	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
41	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	42	advmod	_	_
42	unreasoning	unreason	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	43	amod	_	_
43	hope	hope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	_
44	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	nsubj	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
48	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	amod	_	_
49	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
50	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	conj	_	_
51	luck	luck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	_
52	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	acl:relcl	_	_
53	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	52	iobj	_	_
54	by	by	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	56	det	_	_
56	diviner	diviner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **disbelieve** | may | You |  |  |  |  | something of inherited superstitious tendency lurks within most of us *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | You *not said here* |  |  |  |  | fortune *compound* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **scorn** | infinitive | You *not said here* | fortune |  |  |  | intellectually *property* | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **inherit** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **appeal** | can | a few strange experiences |  |  |  |  | to that inheritance | vn appeal-31.4-2 «NP V PP.experiencer»: agent=Stimulus to inheritance=Experiencer |
| 6 | **induce** | to-infinitive | a few strange experiences *not said here* | the unreasoning hope |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hope=Patient |
| 7 | **unreason** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | fear of the good luck | the unreasoning hope *not said here* | you |  |  | by some diviner | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent you=Theme |
| 9 | **fear** |  |  | the good luck |  |  |  |  | nom fear «feeling transitive»: of=patient |

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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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