---
title: There were no priests who could stop this a-a eruption by their prie… — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: There were no priests who could stop this a-a eruption by their priestly skill. Who acts: priests. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Destruction of Kamehameha’s Fish-ponds, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Destruction of Kamehameha’s Fish-ponds, sentence 26

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There were no priests who could stop this a-a eruption by their priestly skill.

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**Who acts:** priests · **What happens:** be, stop · **To what, where:** this

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Destruction of Kamehameha’s Fish-ponds. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (priests), 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:pg66516:22:26
# text = There were no priests who could stop this a-a eruption by their priestly skill.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	priests	priest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	obj	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	eruption	eruption	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
13	by	by	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	priestly	priestly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	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 | no priests |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **stop** | could | no priests | this |  |  |  | by priests's priestly skill; a eruption *obj* | 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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