---
title: Alexander says: “It seems certain that a foreign vessel which was wr… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Alexander says: “It seems certain that a foreign vessel which was wrecked about this time on the Kona coast of Hawaii must have been one of Saavedra’s missing ships.” Who acts: Alexander, It, foreign vessel. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, First Foreigners, with its 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/11/15/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Hawaiian Historical Legends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/) / [First Foreigners](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/11/) / 15

# Hawaiian Historical Legends, First Foreigners, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Alexander says: “It seems certain that a foreign vessel which was wrecked about this time on the Kona coast of Hawaii must have been one of Saavedra’s missing ships.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Alexander, It, foreign vessel · **What happens:** say, seem, wreck, be · **To what, where:** foreign vessel, Kona coast, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, First Foreigners. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Alexander, It, foreign vessel), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66357:11:15
# text = Alexander says: “It seems certain that a foreign vessel which was wrecked about this time on the Kona coast of Hawaii must have been one of Saavedra’s missing ships.”
1	Alexander	Alexander	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
7	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	foreign	foreign	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	wrecked	wreck	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl:relcl	_	_
15	about	about	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
17	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	Kona	Kona	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	coast	coast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	Hawaii	Hawaii	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
25	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	aux	_	_
26	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	cop	_	_
27	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	ccomp	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
29	Saavedra	Saavedra	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’s	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
31	missing	missing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Alexander |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **seem** *in a quote* | present | It |  |  |  |  | certain *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **wreck** *in a quote* | past · passive |  | a foreign vessel |  | the Kona coast of Hawaii | time |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | must · perfect | a foreign vessel | one |  |  |  | of Saavedra's missing ships | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/11/14/)
- next →: [sentence 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/11/16/)
- ↑ back to [First Foreigners](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/11/)