---
title: They were forced to pass around the obstacles or climb over them. — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: They were forced to pass around the obstacles or climb over them. Who acts: ranks. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Alapa Regiment, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Alapa Regiment, sentence 183

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They were forced to pass around the obstacles or climb over them.

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**Who acts:** ranks · **What happens:** force, pass, climb · **To what, where:** ranks, obstacles

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Alapa Regiment. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ranks), 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:pg66357:14:183
# text = They were forced to pass around the obstacles or climb over them.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	forced	force	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	around	around	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	obstacles	obstacle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	climb	climb	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
11	over	over	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **force** | past · passive |  | ranks *= rank* |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **pass** | to-infinitive | ranks *= rank* *not said here* |  |  | the obstacles |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme around obstacle=Location |
| 3 | **climb** | infinitive | ranks *= rank* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | over ranks *= rank* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over they=Trajectory |

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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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