---
title: Perhaps what I am writing will seem to you absurd; but you would not… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: Perhaps what I am writing will seem to you absurd; but you would not think it absurd if you once heard her howl. Who acts: writing, you, uneasiness. 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/pg8128/9/8/)

<!-- 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/) / 8

# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 7, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Perhaps what I am writing will seem to you absurd; but you would not think it absurd if you once heard her howl.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** writing, you, uneasiness · **What happens:** be, seem, not think, hear, howl · **To what, where:** writing, you, howl

<!-- .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 (writing, you, uneasiness), 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:pg8128:9:8
# text = Perhaps what I am writing will seem to you absurd; but you would not think it absurd if you once heard her howl.
1	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	seem	seem	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	_
10	absurd	absurd	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	absurd	absurd	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
19	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	22	advmod	_	_
22	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	howl	howl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | writing |  |  |  | what *nsubj*; I *nsubj*; perhaps *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **seem** | future | writing |  | you |  |  | absurd *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | would | you | writing |  |  |  | absurd *property* | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot it=Theme |
| 4 | **hear** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | you | uneasiness's howl |  |  |  | once *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer howl=Stimulus |
| 5 | **howl** |  | uneasiness |  |  |  |  |  | nom howl «communication intransitive»: poss=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 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/9/7/)
- next →: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/9/9/)
- ↑ back to [Names of Incense Used., part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/9/)