---
title: In a few moments they were in a waiting canoe making their escape to… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: In a few moments they were in a waiting canoe making their escape to Hawaii. Who acts: gods, waiting canoe. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Alapa Regiment, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Alapa Regiment, sentence 41

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In a few moments they were in a waiting canoe making their escape to Hawaii.

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**Who acts:** gods, waiting canoe · **What happens:** be, make, escape · **To what, where:** waiting canoe, escape, Hawaii

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Alapa Regiment. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gods, waiting canoe), 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:pg66357:14:41
# text = In a few moments they were in a waiting canoe making their escape to Hawaii.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	moments	moment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	waiting	waiting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	canoe	canoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
11	making	make	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	escape	escape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	Hawaii	Hawaii	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | gods *= god* |  |  | a waiting canoe | moment |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | gerund | a waiting canoe *not said here* | gods's escape | Hawaii |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset escape=Product |
| 3 | **escape** |  | gods *= god* |  |  |  |  |  | nom escape «act intransitive»: poss=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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