---
title: We had to sit on the ground, bracing with hands and feet, to keep fr… — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: We had to sit on the ground, bracing with hands and feet, to keep from rolling over.” Who acts: We. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Volcanic Activity, 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/pg66516/27/24/)

<!-- 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/) / [Volcanic Activity](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/27/) / 24

# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Volcanic Activity, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
We had to sit on the ground, bracing with hands and feet, to keep from rolling over.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** We · **What happens:** have, sit, brace, keep, roll over · **To what, where:** ground

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Volcanic Activity. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We), 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:pg66516:27:24
# text = We had to sit on the ground, bracing with hands and feet, to keep from rolling over.”
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	bracing	brace	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
17	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	rolling	roll	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
19	over	over	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | We |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **sit** | to-infinitive | We *not said here* |  |  | the ground |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ground=Location |
| 3 | **brace** | gerund | We *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with hands and feet | tree rules |
| 4 | **keep** | to-infinitive | We *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **roll over** | gerund | We *not said here* |  |  |  |  | over *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «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 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/27/23/)
- next →: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/27/25/)
- ↑ back to [Volcanic Activity](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/27/)