Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, sentence 74
The natives say, “The chief was not in danger, because his steersman was skilful and watchful.
Who acts: natives, chief, steersman · What happens: say, not be, be · To what, where: danger · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Law of the Splintered Paddle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (natives, chief, steersman), 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 natives | det |
| 2 | natives | native | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 say | nsubj |
| 3 | say | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 danger | punct |
| 5 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 danger | punct |
| 6 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 chief | det |
| 7 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 danger | nsubj |
| 8 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 danger | cop |
| 9 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 11 danger | advmod |
| 10 | in | in | ADP | _ | 11 danger | case |
| 11 | danger | danger | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 say | ccomp |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 skilful | punct |
| 13 | because | because | SCONJ | _ | 17 skilful | mark |
| 14 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 15 steersman | nmod:poss |
| 15 | steersman | steersman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 skilful | nsubj |
| 16 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 skilful | cop |
| 17 | skilful | skilful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 say | parataxis |
| 18 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 watchful | cc |
| 19 | watchful | watchful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 skilful | conj |
| 20 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 say | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present | the natives | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | not is in a quote | past | the chief | danger | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | is in a quote | past | chief's steersman | skilful property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | be in a quote | chief's steersman not said here | tree rules |
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.
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