---
title: Perpetually we eat the dust of our race,—_the substance of our ancie… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: Perpetually we eat the dust of our race,—_the substance of our ancient selves_. Who acts: we, our. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 7, sentence 56

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Perpetually we eat the dust of our race,—\_the substance of our ancient selves\_.

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**Who acts:** we, our · **What happens:** eat, race · **To what, where:** dust

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This is a sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used., part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, our), 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:pg8128:9:56
# text = Perpetually we eat the dust of our race,—_the substance of our ancient selves_.
1	Perpetually	perpetually	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	race	race	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	substance	substance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	ancient	ancient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	selves	self	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	3	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | present | we | the dust of our race |  |  |  | the substance of our ancient selves *obl*; perpetually *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dust=Patient |
| 2 | **race** |  | our |  |  |  |  |  | nom race «event intransitive»: 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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