---
title: The steersman broke the sharp edges of lava away from the imprisoned… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The steersman broke the sharp edges of lava away from the imprisoned foot, but did not succeed in liberating his chief before the natives began to thrust at him with their spears. Who acts: steersman, natives. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Law of the Splintered
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/112/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Hawaiian Historical Legends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/) / [The Law of the Splintered Paddle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/) / 112

# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, sentence 112

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The steersman broke the sharp edges of lava away from the imprisoned foot, but did not succeed in liberating his chief before the natives began to thrust at him with their spears.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** steersman, natives · **What happens:** break, imprison, not succeed, liberate, begin, thrust · **To what, where:** sharp edges, chief

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Law of the Splintered Paddle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (steersman, natives), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66357:18:112
# text = The steersman broke the sharp edges of lava away from the imprisoned foot, but did not succeed in liberating his chief before the natives began to thrust at him with their spears.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	steersman	steersman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	edges	edge	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	lava	lava	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	away	away	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	imprisoned	imprison	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	amod	_	_
13	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	succeed	succeed	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	liberating	liberate	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	natives	native	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	thrust	thrust	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	spears	spear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break** | past | the steersman | the sharp edges of lava |  |  |  | from the imprisoned foot; away *property* | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent edge=Patient from foot=Co-Patient |
| 2 | **imprison** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **succeed** | past · do-support |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **liberate** | gerund |  | steersman's chief |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chief=Theme |
| 5 | **begin** | past | the natives |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **thrust** | to-infinitive | the natives *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at steersman; with natives's spears | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent at he=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 111](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/111/)
- next →: [sentence 113](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/113/)
- ↑ back to [The Law of the Splintered Paddle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/)