---
title: They seized whatever they wanted for present use and then destroyed… — Hawaiian Historical Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: They seized whatever they wanted for present use and then destroyed the growing plants and broke down protecting banks and walls. Who acts: followers. A sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Red Mouth Gun, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Hawaiian Historical Legends, The Red Mouth Gun, sentence 58

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They seized whatever they wanted for present use and then destroyed the growing plants and broke down protecting banks and walls.

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**Who acts:** followers · **What happens:** seize, want, destroy, grow, break down, protect · **To what, where:** whatever, growing plants, banks

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This is a sentence of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt, The Red Mouth Gun. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (followers), 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:pg66357:17:58
# text = They seized whatever they wanted for present use and then destroyed the growing plants and broke down protecting banks and walls.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	obj	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	present	present	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	_
11	destroyed	destroy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	amod	_	_
14	plants	plant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
17	down	down	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	protecting	protect	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
19	banks	bank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past | followers *= follower* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **want** | past | followers *= follower* | whatever |  |  |  | for present use | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot whatever=Theme |
| 3 | **destroy** | past | followers *= follower* *not said here* | the growing plants |  |  | then |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plant=Patient |
| 4 | **grow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **break down** | past | followers *= follower* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **protect** | gerund | followers *= follower* *not said here* | banks and walls |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bank=Beneficiary |

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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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