---
title: The King of Oahu had been taken by surprise. — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: The King of Oahu had been taken by surprise. Who acts: surprise. 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 9

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The King of Oahu had been taken by surprise.

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**Who acts:** surprise · **What happens:** take · **To what, where:** King

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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 (surprise), 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:pg66357:16:9
# text = The King of Oahu had been taken by surprise.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	Oahu	Oahu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past · perfect · passive | surprise | the King of Oahu |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument subject=Destination |

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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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