---
title: They told me curious things about different breeds, and also about a… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: They told me curious things about different breeds, and also about a wild variety of silkworm that cannot be domesticated:—it spins splendid silk before turning into a vigorous moth which can use its wings to some purpose. Who acts: methods, race, vigorous moth. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by L
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 2, sentence 46

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They told me curious things about different breeds, and also about a wild variety of silkworm that cannot be domesticated:—it spins splendid silk before turning into a vigorous moth which can use its wings to some purpose.

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**Who acts:** methods, race, vigorous moth · **What happens:** tell, not domesticate, spin, turn, use · **To what, where:** curious things, me, silkworm, splendid silk, vigorous moth, wings · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (methods, race, vigorous moth), 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:pg8128:4:46
# text = They told me curious things about different breeds, and also about a wild variety of silkworm that cannot be domesticated:—it spins splendid silk before turning into a vigorous moth which can use its wings to some purpose.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
6	about	about	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	breeds	breed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	also	also	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
12	about	about	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	variety	variety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	silkworm	silkworm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	obj	_	_
19	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	domesticated	domesticate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	spins	spin	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
27	splendid	splendid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
30	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
31	into	into	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	vigorous	vigorous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	moth	moth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
35	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	37	nsubj	_	_
36	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	use	use	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	acl:relcl	_	_
38	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	obj	_	_
40	to	to	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	42	det	_	_
42	purpose	purpose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | methods *= method* | curious things | me |  |  | about different breeds; a wild variety of silkworm *ccomp* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient thing=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **domesticate** | can · passive |  | silkworm |  |  |  |  | vn remedy-45.7-1 «NP V NP.patient»: that=Patient |
| 3 | **spin** | present | race | splendid silk |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V ADJ.result»: agent=Theme silk=Result |
| 4 | **turn** | gerund | race *not said here* |  |  | a vigorous moth |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into moth=Trajectory |
| 5 | **use** | can | a vigorous moth | race's wings |  |  |  | to some purpose | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wing=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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