---
title: The plants lifted the sky inch by inch until men were able to crawl… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The plants lifted the sky inch by inch until men were able to crawl about between the heavens and the earth, thus passing from place to place and visiting one another. Who acts: plants, men. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Maui the Polynesian, with its dependency tre
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, Maui the Polynesian, sentence 30

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The plants lifted the sky inch by inch until men were able to crawl about between the heavens and the earth, thus passing from place to place and visiting one another.

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**Who acts:** plants, men · **What happens:** lift, be, crawl, pass, visit · **To what, where:** sky inch, heavens, place, one

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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, men), 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:pg66357:2:30
# text = The plants lifted the sky inch by inch until men were able to crawl about between the heavens and the earth, thus passing from place to place and visiting one another.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	plants	plant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	inch	inch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	inch	inch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	advcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	crawl	crawl	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	about	about	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	between	between	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	heavens	heaven	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
25	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	visiting	visit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	conj	_	_
31	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	obj	_	_
32	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	31	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lift** | past | the plants | the sky inch |  |  |  | by inch | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent inch=Theme by inch=Destination |
| 2 | **is** | past | men |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **crawl** | to-infinitive | men *not said here* |  |  | the heavens and the earth |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme between heaven=Trajectory |
| 4 | **pass** | gerund |  |  |  | place |  | to place; thus *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme from place=Initial\_Location to place=Destination |
| 5 | **visit** | gerund |  | one |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Co-Agent |

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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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