Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Pele and the Owl Ghost-god, sentence 40
Whenever Pele hurled her fiery darts, the owl swiftly thrust his head from side to side, catching them in his beak, and with a shake of the head tossing them off to the ground.
Who acts: Pele, owl, shake · What happens: hurl, thrust, catch, toss off · To what, where: fiery darts, head, side, darts, beak, ground
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele and the Owl Ghost-god. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Pele, owl, shake), 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 | Whenever | whenever | ADV | PronType=Rel | 3 hurled | advmod |
| 2 | Pele | Pele | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 hurled | nsubj |
| 3 | hurled | hurl | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 darts | nmod:poss |
| 5 | fiery | fiery | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 darts | amod |
| 6 | darts | dart | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 hurled | obj |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 thrust | punct |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 owl | det |
| 9 | owl | owl | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 thrust | nsubj |
| 10 | swiftly | swiftly | ADV | _ | 11 thrust | advmod |
| 11 | thrust | thrust | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 hurled | conj |
| 12 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 head | nmod:poss |
| 13 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 thrust | obj |
| 14 | from | from | ADP | _ | 15 side | case |
| 15 | side | side | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 thrust | obl |
| 16 | to | to | ADP | _ | 17 side | case |
| 17 | side | side | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 side | nmod |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 catching | punct |
| 19 | catching | catch | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 11 thrust | advcl |
| 20 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 catching | obj |
| 21 | in | in | ADP | _ | 23 beak | case |
| 22 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 beak | nmod:poss |
| 23 | beak | beak | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 catching | obl |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 shake | punct |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 shake | cc |
| 26 | with | with | ADP | _ | 28 shake | case |
| 27 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 28 shake | det |
| 28 | shake | shake | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 hurled | parataxis |
| 29 | of | of | ADP | _ | 31 head | case |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 head | det |
| 31 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 shake | nmod |
| 32 | tossing | toss | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 28 shake | acl |
| 33 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 tossing | obj |
| 34 | off | off | ADP | _ | 32 tossing | compound:prt |
| 35 | to | to | ADP | _ | 37 ground | case |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 ground | det |
| 37 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 tossing | obl |
| 38 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 hurled | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hurl | past | Pele | owl's fiery darts | a shake of the head parataxis; whenever property | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dart=Theme | |||
| 2 | thrust | past | the owl | Pele's head | side to side | swiftly property | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent head=Theme from side=Initial_Location | ||
| 3 | catch | gerund | the owl not said here | darts = dart | Pele's beak | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme | |||
| 4 | toss off | gerund | a shake of the head not said here | darts = dart | the ground | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Patient to ground=Recipient |
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.
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