---
title: He is inclined to be curious; and it is better that he should not kn… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: He is inclined to be curious; and it is better that he should not know.” Who acts: fellow. 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 126

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He is inclined to be curious; and it is better that he should not know.”

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**Who acts:** fellow · **What happens:** incline, be, not know · **To what, where:** fellow

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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 (fellow), 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:pg8128:5:127
# text = He is inclined to be curious; and it is better that he should not know.”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	inclined	incline	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	expl	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	parataxis	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **incline** | present · passive |  | fellow |  |  |  |  | vn addict-96 «NP V NP PP.Theme»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | curious *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **know** | should | fellow |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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