---
title: The sled was so narrow and the difficulty of staying on it so great,… — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: The sled was so narrow and the difficulty of staying on it so great, that it became one of the most interesting contests in which chiefs and people delighted. Who acts: sled, difficulty. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele and Kaha-wali, with its depen
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/10/18/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mytholo…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/) / [Pele and Kaha-wali](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/10/) / 18

# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Pele and Kaha-wali, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sled was so narrow and the difficulty of staying on it so great, that it became one of the most interesting contests in which chiefs and people delighted.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sled, difficulty · **What happens:** be, stay, become · **To what, where:** difficulty

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele and Kaha-wali. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sled, difficulty), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66516:10:18
# text = The sled was so narrow and the difficulty of staying on it so great, that it became one of the most interesting contests in which chiefs and people delighted.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sled	sled	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
9	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
10	staying	stay	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	xcomp	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	23	advmod	_	_
23	interesting	interesting	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	contests	contest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	27	det	_	_
27	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	conj	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	conj	_	_
30	delighted	delighted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the sled |  |  |  |  | the difficulty *conj*; narrow *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **stay** | gerund | the difficulty *not said here* |  |  | difficulty |  | great *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on it=Location |
| 3 | **become** | past | difficulty |  |  |  |  | one of the interesting contests and which chiefs and people *xcomp* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Project Gutenberg book 66516 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/10/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/10/19/)
- ↑ back to [Pele and Kaha-wali](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/10/)