---
title: According to other legends the plants had to push up the clouds a li… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: According to other legends the plants had to push up the clouds a little, and thus the leaves flattened out into larger surface, so that they could better drive the skies back. Who acts: plants. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Maui the Polynesian, with its dependency
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Maui the Polynesian, sentence 28

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According to other legends the plants had to push up the clouds a little, and thus the leaves flattened out into larger surface, so that they could better drive the skies back.

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**Who acts:** plants · **What happens:** accord, have, push up, flatten out, drive back · **To what, where:** clouds, leaves, larger surface, skies

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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), 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:pg66357:2:28
# text = According to other legends the plants had to push up the clouds a little, and thus the leaves flattened out into larger surface, so that they could better drive the skies back.
1	According	accord	VERB	VBG	ExtPos=ADP|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	case	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	legends	legend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	plants	plant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	push	push	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	parataxis	_	_
20	flattened	flatten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl	_	_
21	out	out	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	into	into	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	larger	large	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	24	amod	_	_
24	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	31	mark	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	fixed	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	31	advmod	_	_
31	drive	drive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	parataxis	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	skies	sky	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	_
34	back	back	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	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 | **have** | past | the plants |  |  |  |  | accord other legends; the leaves *parataxis* | tree rules |
| 3 | **push up** | to-infinitive | the plants *not said here* | the clouds |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cloud=Theme |
| 4 | **flatten out** | participle |  | the leaves *not said here* |  | larger surface |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **drive back** | could | plants *= plant* | the skies |  |  |  | well *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme sky=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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