---
title: And the old man retired hastily,—anxious to avoid further converse a… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: And the old man retired hastily,—anxious to avoid further converse about the painful event for which he felt himself to have been unwittingly responsible. Who acts: old man, man. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 3, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 3, sentence 59

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And the old man retired hastily,—anxious to avoid further converse about the painful event for which he felt himself to have been unwittingly responsible.

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**Who acts:** old man, man · **What happens:** retire, avoid, feel, be · **To what, where:** man

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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 (old man, man), 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:pg8128:5:60
# text = And the old man retired hastily,—anxious to avoid further converse about the painful event for which he felt himself to have been unwittingly responsible.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	retired	retire	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	hastily	hastily	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	anxious	anxious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	avoid	avoid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
12	further	further	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	converse	converse	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	_
14	about	about	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	painful	painful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	event	event	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	obl	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
22	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
24	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	aux	_	_
25	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	cop	_	_
26	unwittingly	unwittingly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	responsible	responsible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **retire** | participle | the old man |  |  |  |  | hastily *property* | vn resign-10.11-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **avoid** | to-infinitive | the old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | converse *property* | vn avoid-52 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **feel** | past | man | man |  |  |  | for the painful event | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent himself=Location for which=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive · perfect | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | responsible, unwittingly *property* | tree rules |

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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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