Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Destruction of Kamehameha’s Fish-ponds, sentence 8
All seemed unavailing until one day King Kamehameha went to the flowing lava, attended by a large retinue of chiefs and priests, and as the most valuable offering he could make, cut off part of his own hair which was always considered sacred and threw it into the torrent.
Who acts: King · What happens: seem, go, flow, attend, make, cut off · To what, where: unavailing, flowing lava, part, own hair, torrent
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Destruction of Kamehameha’s Fish-ponds. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King), 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 | All | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 2 seemed | advmod |
| 2 | seemed | seem | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | unavailing | unavailing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 seemed | obj |
| 4 | until | until | SCONJ | _ | 9 went | mark |
| 5 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 6 day | nummod |
| 6 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 went | obl:unmarked |
| 7 | King | King | PROPN | Number=Sing | 9 went | nsubj |
| 8 | Kamehameha | Kamehameha | PROPN | Number=Sing | 7 King | flat |
| 9 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 seemed | advcl |
| 10 | to | to | ADP | _ | 13 lava | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 lava | det |
| 12 | flowing | flow | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 13 lava | amod |
| 13 | lava | lava | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 went | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 attended | punct |
| 15 | attended | attend | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 13 lava | acl |
| 16 | by | by | ADP | _ | 19 retinue | case |
| 17 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 19 retinue | det |
| 18 | large | large | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 retinue | amod |
| 19 | retinue | retinue | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 attended | obl |
| 20 | of | of | ADP | _ | 21 chiefs | case |
| 21 | chiefs | chief | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 retinue | nmod |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 priests | cc |
| 23 | priests | priest | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 chiefs | conj |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 make | punct |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 33 make | cc |
| 26 | as | as | ADP | _ | 30 offering | case |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 offering | det |
| 28 | most | most | ADV | Degree=Sup | 29 valuable | advmod |
| 29 | valuable | valuable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 30 offering | amod |
| 30 | offering | offering | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 make | obl |
| 31 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 make | nsubj |
| 32 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 33 make | aux |
| 33 | make | make | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 seemed | parataxis |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 cut | punct |
| 35 | cut | cut | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 33 make | xcomp |
| 36 | off | off | ADP | _ | 35 cut | compound:prt |
| 37 | part | part | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 cut | obj |
| 38 | of | of | ADP | _ | 41 hair | case |
| 39 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 41 hair | nmod:poss |
| 40 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 hair | amod |
| 41 | hair | hair | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 part | nmod |
| 42 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 45 considered | nsubj:pass |
| 43 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 45 considered | aux:pass |
| 44 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 45 considered | advmod |
| 45 | considered | consider | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 41 hair | acl:relcl |
| 46 | sacred | sacred | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 45 considered | xcomp |
| 47 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 48 threw | cc |
| 48 | threw | throw | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 45 considered | conj |
| 49 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 48 threw | obj |
| 50 | into | into | ADP | _ | 52 torrent | case |
| 51 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 52 torrent | det |
| 52 | torrent | torrent | NOUN | Number=Sing | 48 threw | obl |
| 53 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 seemed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | seem | past | unavailing | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme unavailing=Attribute | |||||
| 2 | go | past | King | the flowing lava | day | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to lava=Initial_Location | |||
| 3 | flow | gerund | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 4 | attend | participle | the flowing lava not said here | by a large retinue of chiefs and priests | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent by retinue=Theme | ||||
| 5 | make | could | King | as the valuable offering | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | cut off | infinitive | King not said here | part of King's own hair | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector part=Eventuality | ||||
| 7 | consider | past · passive | King's own hair | always, sacred property | vn consider-29.9-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Attribute | ||||
| 8 | throw | past | part | into the torrent result | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer it=Theme into torrent=Result |
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/pg66516/22/8/