---
title: Even the coral polyps had to have the edge of a crater to work on wh… — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: Even the coral polyps had to have the edge of a crater to work on while building the innumerable coral reefs of the Pacific. Who acts: coral polyps. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, The Crack in the Floor of the Pacific, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), The Crack in the Floor of the Pacific, sentence 14

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Even the coral polyps had to have the edge of a crater to work on while building the innumerable coral reefs of the Pacific.

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**Who acts:** coral polyps · **What happens:** have, work, build · **To what, where:** edge, innumerable coral reefs

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, The Crack in the Floor of the Pacific. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (coral polyps), 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:pg66516:25:14
# text = Even the coral polyps had to have the edge of a crater to work on while building the innumerable coral reefs of the Pacific.
1	Even	even	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	coral	coral	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	polyps	polyp	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	crater	crater	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl	_	_
15	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	building	build	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
19	innumerable	innumerable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
20	coral	coral	NOUN	NN	_	21	compound	_	_
21	reefs	reef	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	Pacific	Pacific	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the coral polyps |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | to-infinitive | the coral polyps *not said here* | the edge of a crater |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent edge=Patient |
| 3 | **work** | to-infinitive | the coral polyps *not said here* | the edge of a crater *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **build** | gerund | the coral polyps *not said here* | the innumerable coral reefs of the Pacific |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset reef=Product |

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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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