---
title: The stranger was gone; the doors were fast: it seemed impossible tha… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: The stranger was gone; the doors were fast: it seemed impossible that anybody could have entered. Who acts: stranger, doors, it, anybody. 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 23

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The stranger was gone; the doors were fast: it seemed impossible that anybody could have entered.

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**Who acts:** stranger, doors, it, anybody · **What happens:** be, seem, enter

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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 (stranger, doors, it, anybody), 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:pg8128:7:23
# text = The stranger was gone; the doors were fast: it seemed impossible that anybody could have entered.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	gone	gone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	doors	door	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
13	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	anybody	anybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	18	nsubj	_	_
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux	_	_
18	entered	enter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	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 stranger |  |  |  |  | gone *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the doors |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **seem** | past | it |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **enter** | could · perfect | anybody |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «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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