---
title: She is lean as a wolf, and very old,—the white bitch that guards my… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: She is lean as a wolf, and very old,—the white bitch that guards my gate at night. Who acts: West, white bitch. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 6, sentence 117

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She is lean as a wolf, and very old,—the white bitch that guards my gate at night.

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**Who acts:** West, white bitch · **What happens:** be, guard · **To what, where:** gate

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (West, white bitch), 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:pg8128:8:118
# text = She is lean as a wolf, and very old,—the white bitch that guards my gate at night.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	lean	lean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	as	as	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	very	very	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	bitch	bitch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	guards	guard	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | West |  |  |  |  | as a wolf; the white bitch *conj*; lean *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **guard** | present | the white bitch | my gate |  |  | night |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gate=Beneficiary |

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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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