---
title: It struck the ground at his feet, almost overthrowing him. — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · tree and pragmatics
description: It struck the ground at his feet, almost overthrowing him. Who acts: bolt. A sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele and the Owl Ghost-god, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology), Pele and the Owl Ghost-god, sentence 32

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It struck the ground at his feet, almost overthrowing him.

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**Who acts:** bolt · **What happens:** strike, overthrow · **To what, where:** ground, feet, Pele

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt, Pele and the Owl Ghost-god. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bolt), 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:pg66516:6:32
# text = It struck the ground at his feet, almost overthrowing him.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	overthrowing	overthrow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | past | bolt | the ground |  | Pele's feet |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ground=Patient |
| 2 | **overthrow** | gerund | bolt *not said here* | Pele |  |  |  | almost *property* | tree rules |

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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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