---
title: “In hope of shortening the present and prospective tortures of his f… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: “In hope of shortening the present and prospective tortures of his friend, knowing well what his fate would be if brought alive into the enemy’s camp, the chief did as he was bidden.” Who acts: chief, captive. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Eight of Oahu, with i
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Eight of Oahu, sentence 61

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“In hope of shortening the present and prospective tortures of his friend, knowing well what his fate would be if brought alive into the enemy’s camp, the chief did as he was bidden.”

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**Who acts:** chief, captive · **What happens:** shorten, know, bring, do, bid, torture · **To what, where:** present tortures, hope, fate, camp, captive, friend

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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 (chief, captive), 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:pg66357:16:61
# text = “In hope of shortening the present and prospective tortures of his friend, knowing well what his fate would be if brought alive into the enemy’s camp, the chief did as he was bidden.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	hope	hope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	shortening	shorten	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
7	present	present	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	prospective	prospective	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
10	tortures	torture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
16	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	23	obj	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	fate	fate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux:pass	_	_
22	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	ccomp	_	_
24	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’s	's	PART	POS	_	27	case	_	_
29	camp	camp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
33	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
34	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
35	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
36	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux:pass	_	_
37	bidden	bid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shorten** *in a quote* | gerund |  | the present tortures of captive's friend |  | hope |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent torture=Patient |
| 2 | **know** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **bring** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | would · passive |  | captive's fate |  | the enemy's camp |  | what *obj*; alive *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Destination what=Theme |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | past | the chief |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **bid** *in a quote* | past · passive |  | captive |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **torture** *in a quote* |  |  | captive's friend |  |  |  |  | nom torture «feeling transitive»: of=patient |
| 7 | **fate** *in a quote* |  | captive |  |  |  |  |  | nom fate «event transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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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