Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, sentence 104
While straining himself to see where the men were running, his foot broke through a thin shell of lava into a crevice.
Who acts: foot, men · What happens: strain, see, run, break · To what, where: Ka, thin shell · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Law of the Splintered Paddle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (foot, men), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | While | while | SCONJ | _ | 2 straining | mark |
| 2 | straining | strain | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 14 broke | advcl |
| 3 | himself | himself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 2 straining | obj |
| 4 | to | to | PART | _ | 5 see | mark |
| 5 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 straining | advcl |
| 6 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 10 running | advmod |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 men | det |
| 8 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 running | nsubj |
| 9 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 running | aux |
| 10 | running | run | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 5 see | ccomp |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 straining | punct |
| 12 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 foot | nmod:poss |
| 13 | foot | foot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 broke | nsubj |
| 14 | broke | break | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 15 | through | through | ADP | _ | 18 shell | case |
| 16 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 18 shell | det |
| 17 | thin | thin | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 shell | amod |
| 18 | shell | shell | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 broke | obl |
| 19 | of | of | ADP | _ | 20 lava | case |
| 20 | lava | lava | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 shell | nmod |
| 21 | into | into | ADP | _ | 23 crevice | case |
| 22 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 23 crevice | det |
| 23 | crevice | crevice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 broke | obl |
| 24 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 14 broke | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | strain | gerund | Ka's foot not said here | Ka | vn wipe_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent himself=Source | ||||
| 2 | see | to-infinitive | Ka's foot not said here | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 3 | run | past · progressive | the men | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | break | past | Ka's foot | a thin shell of lava | into a crevice | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through shell=Location |
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.
Text: «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Project Gutenberg book 66357 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/104/