---
title: To her surprise he brushed the clouds away, with a few words checked… — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: To her surprise he brushed the clouds away, with a few words checked the eruption, and stood before them unharmed. Who acts: stranger, few words, Pele. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele and Kama-puaa, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Pele and Kama-puaa, sentence 43

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To her surprise he brushed the clouds away, with a few words checked the eruption, and stood before them unharmed.

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**Who acts:** stranger, few words, Pele · **What happens:** brush away, check, stand, surprise · **To what, where:** clouds, surprise, eruption

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele and Kama-puaa. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stranger, few words, Pele), 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:pg66516:11:43
# text = To her surprise he brushed the clouds away, with a few words checked the eruption, and stood before them unharmed.
1	To	to	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	brushed	brush	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	away	away	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	checked	check	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	eruption	eruption	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
20	before	before	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	_
22	unharmed	unharmed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **brush away** | past | stranger | the clouds |  | Pele's surprise |  | away *property* | vn wipe\_instr-10.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Agent cloud=Theme to surprise=Destination |
| 2 | **check** | past | a few words | the eruption |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eruption=Theme |
| 3 | **stand** | past | stranger *not said here* |  |  |  | before clouds *= cloud* | unharmed *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before they=Location |
| 4 | **surprise** |  | Pele |  |  |  |  |  | nom surprise «feeling transitive»: poss=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 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.

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