Hawaiian Historical Legends, Captain Cook, sentence 46
When they saw peculiar and large “cocoanuts” (probably melons) lying on the deck, they said, “This is the fruit of a sorceress, or mischief-maker of the ocean, who has been killed.”
Who acts: Hawaiians, peculiar, This · What happens: see, lie, say, be, kill · To what, where: peculiar, deck, fruit, mischief maker · 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 (Hawaiians, peculiar, This), 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 | When | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 3 saw | advmod |
| 2 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 saw | nsubj |
| 3 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 said | advcl |
| 4 | peculiar | peculiar | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 saw | obj |
| 5 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 cocoanuts | cc |
| 6 | large | large | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 cocoanuts | amod |
| 7 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 cocoanuts | punct |
| 8 | cocoanuts | cocoanut | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 peculiar | conj |
| 9 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 cocoanuts | punct |
| 10 | ( | ( | PUNCT | _ | 12 melons | punct |
| 11 | probably | probably | ADV | _ | 12 melons | advmod |
| 12 | melons | melon | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 cocoanuts | appos |
| 13 | ) | ) | PUNCT | _ | 12 melons | punct |
| 14 | lying | lie | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 4 peculiar | acl |
| 15 | on | on | ADP | _ | 17 deck | case |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 deck | det |
| 17 | deck | deck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 lying | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 saw | punct |
| 19 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 said | nsubj |
| 20 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 fruit | punct |
| 22 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 26 fruit | punct |
| 23 | This | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 26 fruit | nsubj |
| 24 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 26 fruit | cop |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 fruit | det |
| 26 | fruit | fruit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 said | ccomp |
| 27 | of | of | ADP | _ | 29 sorceress | case |
| 28 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 29 sorceress | det |
| 29 | sorceress | sorceress | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 fruit | nmod |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 maker | punct |
| 31 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 34 maker | cc |
| 32 | mischief | mischief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 maker | compound |
| 33 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 32 mischief | punct |
| 34 | maker | maker | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 said | ccomp |
| 35 | of | of | ADP | _ | 37 ocean | case |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 ocean | det |
| 37 | ocean | ocean | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 maker | nmod |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 42 killed | punct |
| 39 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 42 killed | nsubj:pass |
| 40 | has | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 42 killed | aux |
| 41 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 42 killed | aux:pass |
| 42 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 34 maker | acl |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 42 killed | punct |
| 44 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 34 maker | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | see | past | Hawaiians = hawaiian | peculiar and large cocoanuts | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer peculiar=Stimulus | ||||
| 2 | lie | gerund | peculiar and large cocoanuts not said here | the deck | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on deck=Location | ||||
| 3 | say speech: assert | past | Hawaiians = hawaiian | mischief maker of the ocean ccomp | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | is a in a quote | present | This | the fruit | of a sorceress | tree rules | |||
| 5 | kill in a quote | present · perfect · passive | mischief maker of the ocean | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
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/pg66357/12/46/