---
title: The fire was active as if it had life in itself. — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: The fire was active as if it had life in itself. Who acts: fire. 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 54

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The fire was active as if it had life in itself.

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**Who acts:** fire · **What happens:** be, have · **To what, where:** life

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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 (fire), 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:pg66516:22:54
# text = The fire was active as if it had life in itself.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	active	active	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
9	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the fire |  |  |  |  | active *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | fire | life |  |  |  | in fire | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=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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