---
title: The retainers wrapped their garments of richly coloured tapa around… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: 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. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» 
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, King Kahahana, About 1773, sentence 37

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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.

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**Who acts:** retainers, boatmen · **What happens:** wrap, bronze, glisten, apply, form · **To what, where:** garments, bronzed bodies, pleasing background, gaudy display

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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 (retainers, boatmen), 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:pg66357:13:37
# text = 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.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	retainers	retainer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wrapped	wrap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	garments	garment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	richly	richly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	coloured	coloured	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	tapa	tapa	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
10	around	around	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
13	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	boatmen	boatman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	bronzed	bronze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	amod	_	_
19	bodies	body	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
20	glistened	glisten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	freshly	freshly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	applied	apply	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
24	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
26	formed	form	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	pleasing	pleasing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	background	background	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	gaudy	gaudy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	display	display	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	36	nsubj	_	_
36	highest	high	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	33	conj	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	rank	rank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | 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 |

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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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