---
title: They saw the ghost as if it were the natural body. — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: They saw the ghost as if it were the natural body. Who acts: girls, ghost. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Hiiaka Catching a Ghost, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Hiiaka Catching a Ghost, sentence 30

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They saw the ghost as if it were the natural body.

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**Who acts:** girls, ghost · **What happens:** see, be · **To what, where:** ghost

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Hiiaka Catching a Ghost. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girls, ghost), 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:pg66516:18:30
# text = They saw the ghost as if it were the natural body.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	ghost	ghost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	11	case	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	fixed	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	natural	natural	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | girls *= girl* | the ghost |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ghost=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past | ghost |  |  |  |  | as the natural body | tree rules |

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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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