Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Pele and Kaha-wali, sentence 19

Much practice was necessary before the rider could maintain his or her balance, guide the sled, and gain a velocity which would carry them far beyond any competitor.

Who acts: Much practice, rider, velocity · What happens: be, maintain, guide, gain, carry, balance · To what, where: balance, sled, velocity, sleds

This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele and Kaha-wali. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Much practice, rider, velocity), 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	Much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 practice	amod
2	practice	practice	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 necessary	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 necessary	cop
4	necessary	necessary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	before	before	SCONJ	_	9 maintain	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 rider	det
7	rider	rider	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 maintain	nsubj
8	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 maintain	aux
9	maintain	maintain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 necessary	advcl
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 balance	nmod:poss
11	or	or	CCONJ	_	13 balance	cc
12	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 balance	nmod:poss
13	balance	balance	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 maintain	obj
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 guide	punct
15	guide	guide	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 maintain	conj
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 sled	det
17	sled	sled	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 guide	obj
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 gain	punct
19	and	and	CCONJ	_	20 gain	cc
20	gain	gain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	4 necessary	parataxis
21	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 velocity	det
22	velocity	velocity	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 gain	obj
23	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	25 carry	nsubj
24	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	25 carry	aux
25	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	22 velocity	acl:relcl
26	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	25 carry	obj
27	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	25 carry	advmod
28	beyond	beyond	ADP	_	30 competitor	case
29	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	30 competitor	det
30	competitor	competitor	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 far	obl
31	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 necessary	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	past	Much practice		necessary property	tree rules
2	maintain	could	the rider	rider's balance		vn declare-29.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent balance=Theme
3	guide	infinitive	the rider not said here	the sled		vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sled=Theme
4	gain	infinitive		a velocity		vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent velocity=Theme
5	carry	would	a velocity	sleds = sled	far property	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme
6	balance		rider			nom balance «state intransitive»: poss=agent

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 Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Project Gutenberg book 66516 (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/pg66516/10/19/

🌲 Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Pele and Kaha-wali, sentence 19

The tree

Pragmatics

Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Pele and Kaha-wali, sentence 19