---
title: He could fight well, but could not run away as swiftly as his comrad… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: He could fight well, but could not run away as swiftly as his comrades. Who acts: opposition. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Eight of Oahu, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Eight of Oahu, sentence 52

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He could fight well, but could not run away as swiftly as his comrades.

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**Who acts:** opposition · **What happens:** fight, not run away

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Eight of Oahu. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (opposition), 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:pg66357:16:52
# text = He could fight well, but could not run away as swiftly as his comrades.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	fight	fight	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
10	away	away	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	as	as	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	comrades	comrade	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fight** | could | opposition |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **run away** | could | opposition *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away, swiftly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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