---
title: It was not very difficult to roll the stone between the posts, but v… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: It was not very difficult to roll the stone between the posts, but very few were able to keep the disc in the centre of the track and strike the far-distant mark. Who acts: few. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Sons of Kii, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Sons of Kii, sentence 194

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It was not very difficult to roll the stone between the posts, but very few were able to keep the disc in the centre of the track and strike the far-distant mark.

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**Who acts:** few · **What happens:** not be, roll, be, keep, strike · **To what, where:** stone, posts, disc, centre, distant mark

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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: who acts (few), 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:pg66357:7:194
# text = It was not very difficult to roll the stone between the posts, but very few were able to keep the disc in the centre of the track and strike the far-distant mark.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	expl	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	roll	roll	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	csubj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	between	between	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	posts	post	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	very	very	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	disc	disc	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	centre	centre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	track	track	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	strike	strike	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
32	far	far	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	distant	distant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	mark	mark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | difficult *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **roll** | to-infinitive |  | the stone |  | the posts |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent stone=Theme between post=Trajectory |
| 3 | **is** | past | few |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **keep** | to-infinitive | few *not said here* | the disc |  | the centre of the track |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent disc=Theme in centre=Location |
| 5 | **strike** | infinitive | few *not said here* | the distant mark |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mark=Patient |

<!-- .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.

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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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