---
title: It is not difficult to imagine the barbaric splendour of the royal c… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: It is not difficult to imagine the barbaric splendour of the royal canoes and their occupants as they crossed the outer coral reefs and drew near to the white sands of the most famous beach in Hawaiian history. Who acts: canoes. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, King K
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, King Kahahana, About 1773, sentence 33

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It is not difficult to imagine the barbaric splendour of the royal canoes and their occupants as they crossed the outer coral reefs and drew near to the white sands of the most famous beach in Hawaiian history.

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**Who acts:** canoes · **What happens:** not be, imagine, cross, draw · **To what, where:** barbaric splendour, outer coral reefs, white sands

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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 (canoes), 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:pg66357:13:33
# text = It is not difficult to imagine the barbaric splendour of the royal canoes and their occupants as they crossed the outer coral reefs and drew near to the white sands of the most famous beach in Hawaiian history.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	expl	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	imagine	imagine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	csubj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	barbaric	barbaric	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	splendour	splendour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	royal	royal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	canoes	canoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	occupants	occupant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	crossed	cross	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	outer	outer	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	coral	coral	NOUN	NN	_	23	compound	_	_
23	reefs	reef	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	near	near	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	sands	sand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
33	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	34	advmod	_	_
34	famous	famous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	beach	beach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	Hawaiian	Hawaiian	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	_
38	history	history	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | difficult *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **imagine** | to-infinitive |  | the barbaric splendour of the royal canoes and canoes's occupants |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot splendour=Theme |
| 3 | **cross** | past | canoes *= canoe* | the outer coral reefs |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reef=Patient |
| 4 | **draw** | past | canoes *= canoe* *not said here* |  |  | the white sands of the famous beach in Hawaiian history |  | near *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent to sand=Destination |

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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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