---
title: There was a very strong flashing light breaking out at the front of… — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: There was a very strong flashing light breaking out at the front of the descending lava. Who acts: strong flashing light. 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
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/22/52/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mytholo…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/) / [Destruction of Kamehameha’s Fish-ponds](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/22/) / 52

# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Destruction of Kamehameha’s Fish-ponds, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was a very strong flashing light breaking out at the front of the descending lava.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** strong flashing light · **What happens:** be, break out, descend · **To what, where:** front

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (strong flashing light), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66516:22:52
# text = There was a very strong flashing light breaking out at the front of the descending lava.
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	7	det	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	flashing	flashing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
8	breaking	break	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	acl	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	descending	descend	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	amod	_	_
16	lava	lava	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a strong flashing light |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **break out** | gerund | a strong flashing light *not said here* |  |  | the front of the descending lava |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at front=Location |
| 3 | **descend** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/22/51/)
- next →: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/22/53/)
- ↑ back to [Destruction of Kamehameha’s Fish-ponds](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/22/)