---
title: I can best explain what I mean by relating a story. — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: I can best explain what I mean by relating a story. Who acts: I. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 1, sentence 98

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I can best explain what I mean by relating a story.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** explain, mean, relate · **To what, where:** story · **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 (I), 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:pg8128:3:100
# text = I can best explain what I mean by relating a story.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	best	well	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	4	advmod	_	_
4	explain	explain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	7	obj	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	mean	mean	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
8	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	relating	relate	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **explain** *speech: assert* | can | I |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **mean** | present | I |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 3 | **relate** | gerund | I *not said here* | a story |  |  |  |  | vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=Theme |

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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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