---
title: But—whatever may happen—do not fail to recite the sutra.” — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: But—whatever may happen—do not fail to recite the sutra.” Who acts: whatever. 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 83

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But—whatever may happen—do not fail to recite the sutra.”

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**Who acts:** whatever · **What happens:** happen, not fail, recite · **To what, where:** sutra

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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 (whatever), 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:pg8128:6:84
# text = But—whatever may happen—do not fail to recite the sutra.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
4	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	do	do	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	fail	fail	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	recite	recite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	sutra	sutra	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | may | whatever |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **fail** | infinitive · do-support | whatever *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **recite** | to-infinitive | whatever *not said here* | the sutra |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sutra=Theme |

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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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