---
title: This was seldom attempted without an ignominious overthrow of board… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: This was seldom attempted without an ignominious overthrow of board and rider as the undertow from the beach struggled with the incoming surf. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Sons of Kii, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Sons of Kii, sentence 137

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This was seldom attempted without an ignominious overthrow of board and rider as the undertow from the beach struggled with the incoming surf.

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**What happens:** attempt, struggle, overthrow · **To what, where:** This, beach, board

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Sons of Kii. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg66357:7:137
# text = This was seldom attempted without an ignominious overthrow of board and rider as the undertow from the beach struggled with the incoming surf.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
3	seldom	seldom	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	attempted	attempt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	without	without	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	ignominious	ignominious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	overthrow	overthrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	board	board	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	rider	rider	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	undertow	undertow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	beach	beach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	struggled	struggle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	incoming	incoming	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	surf	surf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **attempt** | past · passive |  | This |  |  |  | without a ignominious overthrow of board and rider; as the undertow from the beach; seldom *property* | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 2 | **struggle** | participle |  | the beach *not said here* |  |  |  | with the incoming surf | vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with surf=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **overthrow** |  |  | board |  |  |  |  | nom overthrow «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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