---
title: They could not catch and destroy him. — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: They could not catch and destroy him. Who acts: girls. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Hiiaka and the Seacoast Kupuas, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Hiiaka and the Seacoast Kupuas, sentence 37

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They could not catch and destroy him.

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**Who acts:** girls · **What happens:** not catch, destroy · **To what, where:** MAHIKI

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Hiiaka and the Seacoast Kupuas. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girls), 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:pg66516:19:37
# text = They could not catch and destroy him.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	destroy	destroy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **catch** | could | girls *= girl* |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **destroy** | infinitive | girls *= girl* *not said here* | MAHIKI |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |

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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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