---
title: “The characters are not easy to make out,” said my friend—“but wait!… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: “The characters are not easy to make out,” said my friend—“but wait!”…. Who acts: characters, friend. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 5, sentence 128

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“The characters are not easy to make out,” said my friend—“but wait!”….

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**Who acts:** characters, friend · **What happens:** not be, make out, say, wait · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (characters, friend), 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:pg8128:7:129
# text = “The characters are not easy to make out,” said my friend—“but wait!”….
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	characters	character	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	ccomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	csubj	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	wait	wait	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	….	..	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present | the characters |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **make out** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **say** *speech: express* | past | my friend |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **wait** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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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