---
title: The steps came nearer and nearer,—reached the live hedge,—stopped! — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: The steps came nearer and nearer,—reached the live hedge,—stopped! Who acts: steps. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 4, sentence 120

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The steps came nearer and nearer,—reached the live hedge,—stopped!

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**Who acts:** steps · **What happens:** be, reach, stop · **To what, where:** live hedge

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (steps), 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:pg8128:6:121
# text = The steps came nearer and nearer,—reached the live hedge,—stopped!
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	live	live	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	hedge	hedge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the steps |  |  |  |  | near *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the steps *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **reach** | past | the steps *not said here* | the live hedge |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent hedge=Theme |
| 4 | **stop** | past | the steps *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

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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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