Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Sons of Kii, sentence 136

Sometimes a very skilful surf-rider would go through the motions of fighting a battle—throwing the javelin, pushing with a spear, striking with a war-club or stabbing with a dagger.

Who acts: skilful surf rider, motions · What happens: go, fight, throw, push, strike, stab · To what, where: motions, battle, javelin

This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Sons of Kii. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (skilful surf rider, motions), 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	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	PronType=Ind	9 go	advmod
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 rider	det
3	very	very	ADV	_	4 skilful	advmod
4	skilful	skilful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 rider	amod
5	surf	surf	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 rider	compound
6	-	-	PUNCT	_	5 surf	punct
7	rider	rider	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 go	nsubj
8	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 go	aux
9	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
10	through	through	ADP	_	12 motions	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 motions	det
12	motions	motion	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 go	obl
13	of	of	SCONJ	_	14 fighting	mark
14	fighting	fight	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 motions	acl
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 battle	det
16	battle	battle	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 fighting	obj
17	—	-	PUNCT	_	18 throwing	punct
18	throwing	throw	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 go	parataxis
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 javelin	det
20	javelin	javelin	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 throwing	obj
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 pushing	punct
22	pushing	push	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	18 throwing	conj
23	with	with	ADP	_	25 spear	case
24	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	25 spear	det
25	spear	spear	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 pushing	obl
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 striking	punct
27	striking	strike	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	18 throwing	conj
28	with	with	ADP	_	32 club	case
29	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	32 club	det
30	war	war	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 club	compound
31	-	-	PUNCT	_	30 war	punct
32	club	club	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 striking	obl
33	or	or	CCONJ	_	34 stabbing	cc
34	stabbing	stab	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	27 striking	conj
35	with	with	ADP	_	37 dagger	case
36	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	37 dagger	det
37	dagger	dagger	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 stabbing	obl
38	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 go	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	go	would	a skilful surf rider		the motions	sometimes property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme through motion=Initial_Location
2	fight	gerund	the motions not said here	a battle			vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent battle=Co-Agent
3	throw	gerund		the javelin			vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent javelin=Theme
4	push	gerund				with a spear	vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent
5	strike	gerund				with a war club	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with club=Theme
6	stab	gerund				with a dagger	vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with dagger=Instrument

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/pg66357/7/136/

🌲 Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Sons of Kii, sentence 136

The tree

Pragmatics

Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Sons of Kii, sentence 136