Hawaiian Historical Legends, Captain Cook, sentence 159
They decided they had better get the king, take him on the ship, and hold him until the boat should be returned, and then set him free.
Who acts: natives · What happens: decide, have, get, take, hold, return · To what, where: king, ship, boat · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Captain Cook. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (natives), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 decided | nsubj |
| 2 | decided | decide | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 had | nsubj |
| 4 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 decided | ccomp |
| 5 | better | good | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 4 had | xcomp |
| 6 | get | get | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 had | xcomp |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 king | det |
| 8 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 get | obj |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 take | punct |
| 10 | take | take | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 get | conj |
| 11 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 take | obj |
| 12 | on | on | ADP | _ | 14 ship | case |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 ship | det |
| 14 | ship | ship | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 take | obl |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 hold | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 hold | cc |
| 17 | hold | hold | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 get | conj |
| 18 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 hold | obj |
| 19 | until | until | SCONJ | _ | 24 returned | mark |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 boat | det |
| 21 | boat | boat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 returned | nsubj:pass |
| 22 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 24 returned | aux |
| 23 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 24 returned | aux:pass |
| 24 | returned | return | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 17 hold | advcl |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 set | punct |
| 26 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 set | cc |
| 27 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 28 set | advmod |
| 28 | set | set | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 get | conj |
| 29 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 set | obj |
| 30 | free | free | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 set | xcomp |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 decided | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | decide | past | natives = native | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | have | past | natives = native | good property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | get | infinitive | natives = native not said here | the king | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer king=Stimulus | ||||
| 4 | take | infinitive | natives = native not said here | King | the ship | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument he=Destination | |||
| 5 | hold | infinitive | natives = native not said here | King | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | ||||
| 6 | return | should · passive | the boat | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 7 | set | infinitive | natives = native not said here | King | then | free property | vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient he=Result |
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.
Text: «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, Project Gutenberg book 66357 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/12/159/