---
title: There was a hard struggle—the ghost trying to go back and yet yieldi… — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: There was a hard struggle—the ghost trying to go back and yet yielding to the slapping and going further and further into the body. Who acts: hard struggle, ghost. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Hiiaka Catching a Ghost, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Hiiaka Catching a Ghost, sentence 67

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There was a hard struggle—the ghost trying to go back and yet yielding to the slapping and going further and further into the body.

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**Who acts:** hard struggle, ghost · **What happens:** be, try, go back, yield, go · **To what, where:** body

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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 (hard struggle, 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:pg66516:18:67
# text = There was a hard struggle—the ghost trying to go back and yet yielding to the slapping and going further and further into the body.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	struggle	struggle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	ghost	ghost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	_
9	trying	try	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	back	back	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	yielding	yield	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	conj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	slapping	slapping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	going	go	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	conj	_	_
21	further	further	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	further	further	ADV	RB	_	21	conj	_	_
24	into	into	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a hard struggle |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **try** | gerund | the ghost *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **go back** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the ghost *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **yield** | gerund | the ghost *not said here* |  |  |  | yet | to the slapping | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to slapping=Theme |
| 5 | **go** | gerund | the ghost *not said here* |  |  | the body |  | further *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into body=Initial\_Location |

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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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