---
title: [_Laughing_] Isn’t it a sin to have been born so handsome that the g… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: [_Laughing_] Isn’t it a sin to have been born so handsome that the girls die for love of you? Who acts: it, girls. 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 51

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\[\_Laughing\_\] Isn’t it a sin to have been born so handsome that the girls die for love of you?

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**Who acts:** it, girls · **What happens:** laugh, not be, bear, die, love · **To what, where:** sin, you

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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 (it, girls), 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:pg8128:5:52
# text = [_Laughing_] Isn’t it a sin to have been born so handsome that the girls die for love of you?
1	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	Laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	csubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	4	punct	_	_
6	Is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sin	sin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
12	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux	_	_
13	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	handsome	handsome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
20	die	die	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	love	love	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | present | it | a sin |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **bear** | to-infinitive · perfect · passive |  |  |  |  |  | handsome *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S» |
| 4 | **die** | present | the girls |  |  |  |  | for love of you | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for love=Theme |
| 5 | **love** |  |  | you |  |  |  |  | nom love «feeling transitive»: of=patient |

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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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