---
title: Could she speak, my dog, I think that she might ask questions which… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: Could she speak, my dog, I think that she might ask questions which no philosopher would be able to answer. Who acts: faith, I, questions. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/9/74/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [In Ghostly Japan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/) / [Names of Incense Used., part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/9/) / 74

# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 7, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Could she speak, my dog, I think that she might ask questions which no philosopher would be able to answer.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** faith, I, questions · **What happens:** speak, think, ask, be, answer · **To what, where:** dog, questions · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (faith, I, questions), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg8128:9:74
# text = Could she speak, my dog, I think that she might ask questions which no philosopher would be able to answer.
1	Could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
14	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
16	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	17	det	_	_
17	philosopher	philosopher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	cop	_	_
20	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	acl:relcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | could | faith | my dog |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | might | faith | questions |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** | would | questions |  |  |  |  | no philosopher *nsubj*; able *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **answer** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | questions *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/9/73/)
- next →: [sentence 75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/9/75/)
- ↑ back to [Names of Incense Used., part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/9/)