---
title: He tried to catch her between his powerful jaws. — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: He tried to catch her between his powerful jaws. Who acts: LAU. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pili and Noho, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Pili and Noho, sentence 40

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He tried to catch her between his powerful jaws.

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**Who acts:** LAU · **What happens:** try, catch · **To what, where:** Hiiaka

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pili and Noho. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (LAU), 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:pg66516:20:40
# text = He tried to catch her between his powerful jaws.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	between	between	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	powerful	powerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	jaws	jaw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | LAU |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **catch** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | LAU *not said here* | Hiiaka |  |  |  | between LAU's powerful jaws | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent her=Theme |

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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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