---
title: “It was very wicked of him to say such a thing. — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: “It was very wicked of him to say such a thing. Who acts: discourtesy. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 3, sentence 101

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“It was very wicked of him to say such a thing.

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**Who acts:** discourtesy · **What happens:** be, say · **To what, where:** thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (discourtesy), 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:pg8128:5:102
# text = “It was very wicked of him to say such a thing.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
10	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	12	det:predet	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | past | discourtesy |  |  |  |  | of Shijō; wicked *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | discourtesy *not said here* | such thing |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent thing=Topic |

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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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