Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), The Crack in the Floor of the Pacific, sentence 17
There were boiling seas and skies always covered with vast masses of steam clouds, then ages of mountain building at the hands of chaotic fire-rock, and the subsequent ages of the disintegration of lava, forming soil for the coming of plant and animal life.
Who acts: boiling seas, subsequent ages · What happens: be, boil, cover, form, come, disintegrate · To what, where: boiling seas, soil, lava
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, The Crack in the Floor of the Pacific. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boiling seas, subsequent ages), 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 | There | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 2 were | expl |
| 2 | were | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | boiling | boil | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 4 seas | amod |
| 4 | seas | sea | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 were | nsubj |
| 5 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 6 skies | cc |
| 6 | skies | sky | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 seas | conj |
| 7 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 8 covered | advmod |
| 8 | covered | cover | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 seas | acl |
| 9 | with | with | ADP | _ | 11 masses | case |
| 10 | vast | vast | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 11 masses | amod |
| 11 | masses | mass | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 covered | obl |
| 12 | of | of | ADP | _ | 14 clouds | case |
| 13 | steam | steam | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 clouds | compound |
| 14 | clouds | cloud | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 masses | nmod |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 ages | punct |
| 16 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 17 ages | advmod |
| 17 | ages | age | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 clouds | conj |
| 18 | of | of | ADP | _ | 20 building | case |
| 19 | mountain | mountain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 building | compound |
| 20 | building | building | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 ages | nmod |
| 21 | at | at | ADP | _ | 23 hands | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 hands | det |
| 23 | hands | hand | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 clouds | nmod |
| 24 | of | of | ADP | _ | 28 rock | case |
| 25 | chaotic | chaotic | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 rock | amod |
| 26 | fire | fire | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 rock | compound |
| 27 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 26 fire | punct |
| 28 | rock | rock | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 hands | nmod |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 forming | punct |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 40 forming | cc |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 ages | det |
| 32 | subsequent | subsequent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 ages | amod |
| 33 | ages | age | NOUN | Number=Plur | 40 forming | nsubj |
| 34 | of | of | ADP | _ | 36 disintegration | case |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 disintegration | det |
| 36 | disintegration | disintegration | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 ages | nmod |
| 37 | of | of | ADP | _ | 38 lava | case |
| 38 | lava | lava | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 disintegration | nmod |
| 39 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 forming | punct |
| 40 | forming | form | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 2 were | advcl |
| 41 | soil | soil | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 forming | obj |
| 42 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 44 coming | mark |
| 43 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 44 coming | det |
| 44 | coming | come | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 40 forming | advcl |
| 45 | of | of | ADP | _ | 46 plant | case |
| 46 | plant | plant | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 coming | obl |
| 47 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 49 life | cc |
| 48 | animal | animal | NOUN | Number=Sing | 49 life | compound |
| 49 | life | life | NOUN | Number=Sing | 46 plant | conj |
| 50 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 were | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | be | past | boiling seas and skies | there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | boil | gerund | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | ||||||
| 3 | cover | participle | boiling seas and skies not said here | with vast masses of steam clouds at the hands of chaotic fire rock and ages of mountain building; always property | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with mass=Theme | ||||
| 4 | form | gerund | the subsequent ages of the disintegration of lava | soil | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location soil=Theme | ||||
| 5 | come | gerund | the subsequent ages of the disintegration of lava not said here | of plant and animal life | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme of plant=Initial_Location | ||||
| 6 | disintegrate | lava | nom disintegration «state transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg66516/25/17/