Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Pele’s Tree, sentence 7
The ohia roots seem to find food and drink, where the numerous cracks of a lava field open in every direction, and vie with the tree ferns in making life take the place of the desolation caused by the volcanic floods.
Who acts: ohia roots, life · What happens: seem, find, vie, make, take, cause · To what, where: food, life, place, desolation
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele’s Tree. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ohia roots, life), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 roots | det |
| 2 | ohia | ohia | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 roots | compound |
| 3 | roots | root | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 seem | nsubj |
| 4 | seem | seem | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | to | to | PART | _ | 6 find | mark |
| 6 | find | find | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 seem | xcomp |
| 7 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 find | obj |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 drink | cc |
| 9 | drink | drink | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 food | conj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 open | punct |
| 11 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 19 open | advmod |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 cracks | det |
| 13 | numerous | numerous | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 cracks | amod |
| 14 | cracks | crack | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 open | nsubj |
| 15 | of | of | ADP | _ | 18 field | case |
| 16 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 18 field | det |
| 17 | lava | lava | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 field | compound |
| 18 | field | field | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 cracks | nmod |
| 19 | open | open | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 food | advcl |
| 20 | in | in | ADP | _ | 22 direction | case |
| 21 | every | every | DET | PronType=Tot | 22 direction | det |
| 22 | direction | direction | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 open | obl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 vie | punct |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 vie | cc |
| 25 | vie | vie | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 seem | conj |
| 26 | with | with | ADP | _ | 29 ferns | case |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 ferns | det |
| 28 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 ferns | compound |
| 29 | ferns | fern | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 vie | obl |
| 30 | in | in | SCONJ | _ | 31 making | mark |
| 31 | making | make | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 25 vie | advcl |
| 32 | life | life | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 making | obj |
| 33 | take | take | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 making | xcomp |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 place | det |
| 35 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 take | obj |
| 36 | of | of | ADP | _ | 38 desolation | case |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 desolation | det |
| 38 | desolation | desolation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 place | nmod |
| 39 | caused | cause | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 38 desolation | acl |
| 40 | by | by | ADP | _ | 43 floods | case |
| 41 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 43 floods | det |
| 42 | volcanic | volcanic | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 43 floods | amod |
| 43 | floods | flood | NOUN | Number=Plur | 39 caused | obl:agent |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 seem | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | seem | present | the ohia roots | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute | |||||
| 2 | find | to-infinitive | the ohia roots not said here | food and drink | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Topic | ||||
| 3 | vie | infinitive | the ohia roots not said here | with the tree ferns | vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with fern=Co-Agent | ||||
| 4 | make | gerund | the ohia roots not said here | life | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | take | infinitive | life not said here | the place of the desolation | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Theme | ||||
| 6 | cause | participle | the desolation not said here | the volcanic floods obl:agent | vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition |
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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