---
title: They saw a great thing coming up, rising high above the surf, fire b… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: They saw a great thing coming up, rising high above the surf, fire burning on top of it. Who acts: man, great thing, fire. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Captain Cook, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Captain Cook, sentence 21

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They saw a great thing coming up, rising high above the surf, fire burning on top of it.

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**Who acts:** man, great thing, fire · **What happens:** see, come up, rise, burn · **To what, where:** great thing, surf, top

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Captain Cook. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, great thing, fire), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66357:12:21
# text = They saw a great thing coming up, rising high above the surf, fire burning on top of it.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	up	up	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	rising	rise	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	conj	_	_
10	high	high	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	9	advmod	_	_
11	above	above	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	surf	surf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	_
16	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | man | a great thing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus |
| 2 | **come up** | gerund | a great thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **rise** | gerund | a great thing *not said here* |  |  | the surf |  | high *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent above surf=Location |
| 4 | **burn** | gerund | fire *not said here* |  |  | top of top |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on top=Location |

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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.

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**Text:** «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Project Gutenberg book 66357 (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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