---
title: The spice islands lay somewhere in a great ocean toward the sunset f… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The spice islands lay somewhere in a great ocean toward the sunset from Spain, provided the world was round, as Columbus argued. Who acts: spice islands, world, Columbus. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, First Foreigners, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, First Foreigners, sentence 8

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The spice islands lay somewhere in a great ocean toward the sunset from Spain, provided the world was round, as Columbus argued.

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**Who acts:** spice islands, world, Columbus · **What happens:** lay, provide, be, argue · **To what, where:** great ocean

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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 (spice islands, world, Columbus), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66357:11:8
# text = The spice islands lay somewhere in a great ocean toward the sunset from Spain, provided the world was round, as Columbus argued.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	spice	spice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	islands	island	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	somewhere	somewhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	4	advmod	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	ocean	ocean	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	toward	toward	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	sunset	sunset	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	from	from	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Spain	Spain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	provided	provide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	round	round	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	Columbus	Columbus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	argued	argue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay** | present | the spice islands |  |  | a great ocean toward the sunset from Spain |  | somewhere *property* | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in ocean=Destination |
| 2 | **provide** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn ensure-99 «NP V that S»: agent=Precondition |
| 3 | **is** | past | the world |  |  |  |  | round *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **argue** *speech: disagree* | past | Columbus |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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.

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**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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