---
title: It was over this arid plain dotted here and there by cocoanut trees… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: It was over this arid plain dotted here and there by cocoanut trees and across a few streams bordered by taro patches that the eight famous chiefs picked their way. Who acts: luxuriance, eight famous chiefs. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Eight of Oahu, with its
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Eight of Oahu, sentence 25

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It was over this arid plain dotted here and there by cocoanut trees and across a few streams bordered by taro patches that the eight famous chiefs picked their way.

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**Who acts:** luxuriance, eight famous chiefs · **What happens:** be, dot, border, pick · **To what, where:** arid plain, few streams, taro patches

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Eight of Oahu. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (luxuriance, eight famous chiefs), 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:pg66357:16:25
# text = It was over this arid plain dotted here and there by cocoanut trees and across a few streams bordered by taro patches that the eight famous chiefs picked their way.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	over	over	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
5	arid	arid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	plain	plain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	dotted	dot	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	_
8	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	conj	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	cocoanut	cocoanut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	across	across	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	streams	stream	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
19	bordered	border	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
20	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	taro	taro	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	patches	patch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	obl:unmarked	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
25	eight	eight	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
26	famous	famous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
28	picked	pick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | luxuriance |  |  | this arid plain |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **dot** | participle |  | this arid plain *not said here* |  | here; there |  | by cocoanut trees and a few streams | vn fill-9.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **border** | participle |  | a few streams *not said here* |  |  |  | by taro patches | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **pick** | past | the eight famous chiefs | taro patches |  |  |  | chiefs's way *obj* | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Patient |

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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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