---
title: According to some legends the skies pressed so closely and so heavil… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: According to some legends the skies pressed so closely and so heavily upon the earth that when the plants began to grow all the leaves were necessarily flat. Who acts: plants, leaves. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Maui the Polynesian, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Maui the Polynesian, sentence 27

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According to some legends the skies pressed so closely and so heavily upon the earth that when the plants began to grow all the leaves were necessarily flat.

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**Who acts:** plants, leaves · **What happens:** accord, press, begin, grow, be · **To what, where:** skies, earth

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Maui the Polynesian. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (plants, leaves), 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:pg66357:2:27
# text = According to some legends the skies pressed so closely and so heavily upon the earth that when the plants began to grow all the leaves were necessarily flat.
1	According	accord	VERB	VBG	ExtPos=ADP|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	case	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	det	_	_
4	legends	legend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	skies	sky	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
7	pressed	press	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	closely	closely	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	heavily	heavily	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
13	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	obj	_	_
17	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	plants	plant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
20	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	25	det:predet	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
26	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	necessarily	necessarily	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	flat	flat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **accord** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **press** | participle |  | the skies *not said here* |  |  |  | closely *property* | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **begin** | past | the plants | the earth |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **grow** | to-infinitive | the plants *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | all leaves |  |  |  |  | flat, necessarily *property* | tree rules |

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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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