Hawaiian Historical Legends, King Kahahana, About 1773, sentence 37
The retainers wrapped their garments of richly coloured tapa around them, while the boatmen, whose bronzed bodies glistened with freshly applied oil, formed a pleasing background to the gaudy display of those highest in rank.
Who acts: retainers, boatmen · What happens: wrap, bronze, glisten, apply, form · To what, where: garments, bronzed bodies, pleasing background, gaudy display
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, King Kahahana, About 1773. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (retainers, boatmen), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 retainers | det |
| 2 | retainers | retainer | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 wrapped | nsubj |
| 3 | wrapped | wrap | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 5 garments | nmod:poss |
| 5 | garments | garment | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 wrapped | obj |
| 6 | of | of | ADP | _ | 9 tapa | case |
| 7 | richly | richly | ADV | _ | 8 coloured | advmod |
| 8 | coloured | coloured | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 tapa | amod |
| 9 | tapa | tapa | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 garments | nmod |
| 10 | around | around | ADP | _ | 11 them | case |
| 11 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 tapa | nmod |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 formed | punct |
| 13 | while | while | SCONJ | _ | 26 formed | mark |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 boatmen | det |
| 15 | boatmen | boatman | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 formed | nsubj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 bodies | punct |
| 17 | whose | whose | PRON | Poss=Yes PronType=Rel | 19 bodies | nmod:poss |
| 18 | bronzed | bronze | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 19 bodies | amod |
| 19 | bodies | body | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 boatmen | conj |
| 20 | glistened | glisten | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 19 bodies | acl |
| 21 | with | with | ADP | _ | 24 oil | case |
| 22 | freshly | freshly | ADV | _ | 23 applied | advmod |
| 23 | applied | apply | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 24 oil | amod |
| 24 | oil | oil | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 glistened | obl |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 boatmen | punct |
| 26 | formed | form | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 wrapped | advcl |
| 27 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 29 background | det |
| 28 | pleasing | pleasing | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 background | amod |
| 29 | background | background | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 formed | obj |
| 30 | to | to | ADP | _ | 33 display | case |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 display | det |
| 32 | gaudy | gaudy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 display | amod |
| 33 | display | display | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 formed | obl |
| 34 | of | of | ADP | _ | 36 highest | case |
| 35 | those | that | PRON | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 36 highest | nsubj |
| 36 | highest | high | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 33 display | conj |
| 37 | in | in | ADP | _ | 38 rank | case |
| 38 | rank | rank | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 highest | obl |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 wrapped | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | wrap | past | the retainers | retainers's garments of coloured tapa around garments | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent garment=Theme | ||||
| 2 | bronze | participle | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 3 | glisten | participle | the boatmen and the boatmen and bronzed bodies's bronzed bodies's bronzed bodies not said here | with applied oil | vn light_emission-43.1 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with oil=Theme | ||||
| 4 | apply | participle | freshly property | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | form | past | the boatmen and the boatmen and the boatmen's bronzed bodies's bronzed bodies | a pleasing background | the gaudy display | vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent background=Theme to display=Recipient |
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/pg66357/13/37/