---
title: At brief intervals some expert visits each tray to inspect progress,… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: At brief intervals some expert visits each tray to inspect progress, picks up the plumpest feeders, and decides, by gently rolling them between forefinger and thumb, which are ready to spin. Who acts: some, thumb. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 2, wi
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 2, sentence 38

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At brief intervals some expert visits each tray to inspect progress, picks up the plumpest feeders, and decides, by gently rolling them between forefinger and thumb, which are ready to spin.

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**Who acts:** some, thumb · **What happens:** expert, inspect, pick up, decide, roll, be · **To what, where:** visits, brief intervals, progress, plumpest feeders, trays, forefinger

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (some, thumb), 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:pg8128:4:38
# text = At brief intervals some expert visits each tray to inspect progress, picks up the plumpest feeders, and decides, by gently rolling them between forefinger and thumb, which are ready to spin.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	brief	brief	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	intervals	interval	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
4	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	nsubj	_	_
5	expert	expert	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	visits	visit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
7	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	det	_	_
8	tray	tray	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	inspect	inspect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
11	progress	progress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	picks	pick	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
14	up	up	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	plumpest	plump	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	17	amod	_	_
17	feeders	feeder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	decides	decide	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	rolling	roll	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	between	between	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	forefinger	forefinger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	thumb	thumb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj	_	_
32	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	acl:relcl	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	spin	spin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **expert** | present | some | visits |  | brief intervals |  | each tray *obj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **inspect** | to-infinitive | some *not said here* | progress |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent progress=Theme |
| 3 | **pick up** | present |  | the plumpest feeders |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feeder=Topic |
| 4 | **decide** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **roll** | gerund |  | trays *= tray* |  | forefinger and thumb |  | gently *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent they=Theme between forefinger=Trajectory |
| 6 | **is** | present | thumb |  |  |  |  | ready *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **spin** | to-infinitive | thumb *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=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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