---
title: Probably the girl has been in love with you from a time long precedi… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: Probably the girl has been in love with you from a time long preceding your present life,—from a time of not less than three or four past existences; and it would seem that, although necessarily changing her form and condition at each succeeding birth, she has not been able to cease from following a
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 4, sentence 73

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Probably the girl has been in love with you from a time long preceding your present life,—from a time of not less than three or four past existences; and it would seem that, although necessarily changing her form and condition at each succeeding birth, she has not been able to cease from following after you.

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**Who acts:** girl, it · **What happens:** be, precede, seem, change, succeed, not be · **To what, where:** love, present life, that, form, succeeding birth

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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 (girl, it), 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:pg8128:6:74
# text = Probably the girl has been in love with you from a time long preceding your present life,—from a time of not less than three or four past existences; and it would seem that, although necessarily changing her form and condition at each succeeding birth, she has not been able to cease from following after you.
1	Probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	cop	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	love	love	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nmod	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
13	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
14	preceding	precede	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
15	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	present	present	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	less	less	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	27	advmod	_	_
26	than	than	ADP	IN	_	25	fixed	_	_
27	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
28	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	conj	_	_
30	past	past	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	existences	existence	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	36	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
35	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	seem	seem	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
37	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
40	necessarily	necessarily	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
41	changing	change	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	36	advcl	_	_
42	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	condition	condition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	conj	_	_
46	at	at	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
47	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	49	det	_	_
48	succeeding	succeed	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	49	amod	_	_
49	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
51	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	55	nsubj	_	_
52	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	55	aux	_	_
53	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	55	advmod	_	_
54	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	55	cop	_	_
55	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	conj	_	_
56	to	to	PART	TO	_	57	mark	_	_
57	cease	cease	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	55	xcomp	_	_
58	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	59	mark	_	_
59	following	follow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	57	advcl	_	_
60	after	after	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
61	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	59	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present · perfect | the girl |  |  | love | time | with you; probably *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **precede** | gerund | the girl *not said here* | your present life |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme life=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **seem** | would | it | that |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme that=Attribute |
| 4 | **change** | gerund |  | girl's form and condition |  | each succeeding birth |  | necessarily *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent form=Patient |
| 5 | **succeed** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **not** **is** | present · perfect | girl |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **cease** | to-infinitive | girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 8 | **follow** | gerund | girl *not said here* |  |  |  | after you |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent after you=Theme |
| 9 | **form** |  | girl |  |  |  |  |  | nom form «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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