---
title: There were boiling seas and skies always covered with vast masses of… — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: There were boiling seas and skies always covered with vast masses of steam clouds, then ages of mountain building at the hands of chaotic fire-rock, and the subsequent ages of the disintegration of lava, forming soil for the coming of plant and animal life. Who acts: boiling seas, subsequent ages. A
---

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# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), The Crack in the Floor of the Pacific, sentence 17

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There were boiling seas and skies always covered with vast masses of steam clouds, then ages of mountain building at the hands of chaotic fire-rock, and the subsequent ages of the disintegration of lava, forming soil for the coming of plant and animal life.

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**Who acts:** boiling seas, subsequent ages · **What happens:** be, boil, cover, form, come, disintegrate · **To what, where:** boiling seas, soil, lava

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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 (boiling seas, subsequent ages), 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:pg66516:25:17
# text = There were boiling seas and skies always covered with vast masses of steam clouds, then ages of mountain building at the hands of chaotic fire-rock, and the subsequent ages of the disintegration of lava, forming soil for the coming of plant and animal life.
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	boiling	boil	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	amod	_	_
4	seas	sea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	skies	sky	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
7	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	8	advmod	_	_
8	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	vast	vast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	masses	mass	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	steam	steam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
17	ages	age	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	building	building	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	chaotic	chaotic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
26	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	subsequent	subsequent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	ages	age	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nsubj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	disintegration	disintegration	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	lava	lava	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
40	forming	form	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
41	soil	soil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obj	_	_
42	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	44	mark	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	40	advcl	_	_
45	of	of	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	plant	plant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obl	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
48	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	compound	_	_
49	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	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 | boiling seas and skies |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **boil** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **cover** | participle |  | boiling seas and skies *not said here* |  |  |  | with vast masses of steam clouds at the hands of chaotic fire rock and ages of mountain building; always *property* | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with mass=Theme |
| 4 | **form** | gerund | the subsequent ages of the disintegration of lava | soil |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location soil=Theme |
| 5 | **come** | gerund | the subsequent ages of the disintegration of lava *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of plant and animal life | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme of plant=Initial\_Location |
| 6 | **disintegrate** |  |  | lava |  |  |  |  | nom disintegration «state transitive»: of=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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