---
title: They had no hope of being able to rescue him but turned to see if an… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: They had no hope of being able to rescue him but turned to see if anything could be done. Who acts: friends, hope. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Eight of Oahu, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Eight of Oahu, sentence 58

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They had no hope of being able to rescue him but turned to see if anything could be done.

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**Who acts:** friends, hope · **What happens:** have, be, rescue, turn, see, do · **To what, where:** hope, captive, anything

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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 (friends, hope), 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:pg66357:16:58
# text = They had no hope of being able to rescue him but turned to see if anything could be done.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	hope	hope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	cop	_	_
7	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	acl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	rescue	rescue	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | friends *= friend* | no hope |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hope=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | gerund | no hope *not said here* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **rescue** | to-infinitive | no hope *not said here* | captive |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **turn** | past | friends *= friend* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **see** | to-infinitive | friends *= friend* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | could · passive |  | anything |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |

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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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