---
title: For the face was the face of a woman long dead,—and the fingers care… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: For the face was the face of a woman long dead,—and the fingers caressing were fingers of naked bone,—and of the body below the waist there was not anything: it melted off into thinnest trailing shadow. Who acts: fingers, face. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Use
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 4, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For the face was the face of a woman long dead,—and the fingers caressing were fingers of naked bone,—and of the body below the waist there was not anything: it melted off into thinnest trailing shadow.

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**Who acts:** fingers, face · **What happens:** be, caress, not be, melt off, trail · **To what, where:** face, fingers, anything, thinnest trailing shadow

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (fingers, face), 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:pg8128:6:14
# text = For the face was the face of a woman long dead,—and the fingers caressing were fingers of naked bone,—and of the body below the waist there was not anything: it melted off into thinnest trailing shadow.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
17	caressing	caress	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	acl	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	naked	naked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	bone	bone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
29	below	below	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	waist	waist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
32	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	33	expl	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
34	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	35	advmod	_	_
35	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
37	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	melted	melt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	acl:relcl	_	_
39	off	off	ADP	RP	_	38	compound:prt	_	_
40	into	into	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
41	thinnest	thin	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	43	amod	_	_
42	trailing	trail	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	43	amod	_	_
43	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	35	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the face |  |  |  | for the face; of a woman | tree rules |
| 2 | **caress** | gerund | the fingers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | past | the fingers | fingers and the body below the waist |  |  |  | of naked bone; the body below the waist *conj* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **is a** | past | the face | anything |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **melt off** | past | face |  |  | thinnest trailing shadow |  |  | vn knead-26.5 «NP.material V PP.product»: agent=Material into shadow=Product |
| 6 | **trail** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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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