---
title: Certainly she knows a great deal more about the earth on which we tr… — In Ghostly Japan · tree and pragmatics
description: Certainly she knows a great deal more about the earth on which we tread than would be good for us to know; and probably, if capable of speech, she could tell us the strangest stories of air and water. Who acts: faith, we, us. A sentence of «In Ghostly Japan» by Lafcadio Hearn, Names of Incense Used.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/9/83/)

<!-- 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/) / 83

# In Ghostly Japan, Names of Incense Used., part 7, sentence 83

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Certainly she knows a great deal more about the earth on which we tread than would be good for us to know; and probably, if capable of speech, she could tell us the strangest stories of air and water.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** faith, we, us · **What happens:** know, tread, be, tell · **To what, where:** great deal, earth, strangest stories, us · **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, we, us), 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:pg8128:9:83
# text = Certainly she knows a great deal more about the earth on which we tread than would be good for us to know; and probably, if capable of speech, she could tell us the strangest stories of air and water.
1	Certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	obj	_	_
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	obl	_	_
13	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	tread	tread	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
15	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
18	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	advcl	_	_
19	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
27	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
28	capable	capable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	speech	speech	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	conj	_	_
35	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	iobj	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	strangest	strange	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	38	amod	_	_
38	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obj	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present | faith | a great deal |  |  |  | certainly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **tread** | present | we |  |  | the earth |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on which=Trajectory |
| 3 | **is** | would | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **know** | to-infinitive | us |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could | faith | the strangest stories of air and water | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent we=Recipient story=Topic |

<!-- .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 82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/9/82/)
- next →: [sentence 84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/9/84/)
- ↑ back to [Names of Incense Used., part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8128/9/)